Ukraine is losing fewer soldiers in its counter-offensive than Russia claims

media blackout, getting information about Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south of the country is not easy. A military press officer is blunt. “I have permission to tell you what’s written on our Facebook page and no more.” Unsurprisingly, hostile sources have tried to fill the vacuum. In recent days Russian news sites have peddled the idea that Ukraine’s southern push has failed, at a vast cost in lives. Mykolaiv, the city closest to the frontline, has witnessed the worst of it, they claim, with overflowing morgues and hospitals struggling to treat the massed ranks of wounded. A visit to the city on September 3rd showed those claims to be untrue. Long queues outside blood-donation clinics did suggest a degree of local trepidation. But there was no panic at any of the city’s morgues. The city’s hospitals are closed to the press: a Russian missile strike near one of them overnight offered clues as to why. But a doctor working at the main emergency unit said he was seeing between 15-30 injured soldiers a day. “More than usual, but not our worst nightmare.”