Russian troops on walking sticks were targeted on the front line in Ukraine, a battlefield video appears to show.
Newsweek contacted the Kremlin for comment by email on Monday.
Why It Matters
At least one of the soldiers in the video appears to be wounded, which could highlight a potential shortage of manpower within President Vladimir Putin's military ranks. Both Ukraine and Russia continue to sustain significant losses in the war, which enters its fourth year next month.
Reports emerged in 2023 that Russia was sending wounded and disabled troops to fight in Ukraine, but there hasn't been any combat footage published by Ukraine's military targeting these wounded soldiers.
What to Know
The video was posted on X (formerly Twitter) by user lucky__soldier, on Sunday. The X user purports to be a Ukrainian soldier and has more than 27,000 followers on the social media platform.
The video is filmed by a drone and appears to show Russian troops holding walking sticks as they trudge across a barren field, before they are struck. Newsweek isn't embedding the video due to its graphic nature.
Newsweek couldn't independently verify the footage, including when and where it was filmed, but OSINT accounts on X have said the video was taken near the village of Novotroitske, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Moscow's troop losses have risen exponentially amid a fresh offensive launched by Ukraine in Russia's Kursk region this month, and as fighting intensifies in Ukraine's Donbas region.
Estimates of casualty numbers vary, with Ukraine's figures usually exceeding those of its Western allies. Russia, like Ukraine, rarely divulges information on the number of casualties it has sustained in the war.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview on Sunday that Russia suffered 434,000 casualties in 2024, including 150,000 deaths. He didn't elaborate on Ukrainian casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also said Russia is hiding the fact that its military is relying on foreign forces to fight against Ukraine in the war. He published prisoner-of-war videos of two North Korean soldiers who were deployed to Russia to fight against Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine and South Korea in late 2024 said that Pyongyang deployed an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 servicemen to southern Russia to fight Ukrainian forces.
What People Are Saying
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with Ukrainian news outlet TSN on Sunday: "In this year of fighting, [Russian President Vladimir Putin] lost more than in the previous two years of the war [combined]."
Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko said on Telegram on January 18: "In general, 'disabled regiments' have become a fairly common phenomenon among the occupiers in the last six months. Putin wants to seize more territories at any cost, and if he could send more dead people to storm, he would do so."
What Happens Next?
Russia and Ukraine's death toll in the war will continue to climb as both sides seek to make battlefield gains ahead of potential peace talks that may come after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday.
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