Citing inflated numbers concerning losses in a war is a common way to paint a pretty picture for propaganda purposes. However, if the lies are too obvious, they tend to backfire. A classic and extreme example is "Baghdad Bob", Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Information Minister for Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even as American tanks were entering the capital around him, he appeared on live TV and claimed that the enemy was being slaughtered and that Iraq was triumphant on the battlefield.
Vladimir Putin is not far from channelling Baghdad Bob. He claimed that Ukraine has already lost 25 to 35 percent of the tanks sent by its Western allies. This is a heavily inflated number, to the point of being outright silly. The counterattack by Ukraine is still in its early stages, and they have not yet even engaged with more than a small fraction of the tanks available to them. Independent experts assess that the actual numbers are between 1 and 2 percent, which would be a perfectly acceptable and calculated loss.
Ukraine might have engaged 5 percent of their tanks in their initial wide and probing attacks along the entire front, and they might possibly have lost 25 percent of those, but Putin's claim is a desperate overreach in an attempt to deceive and keep up appearances for a little while longer. In his most recent public address, he said nothing about his ongoing war against Ukraine, which is a certain sign that it's all going terribly wrong for him.
Reports of Russian troops holding their ground and putting up a fierce fight are probably true, but other reports of untrained and unmotivated troops abandoning their positions and fleeing in panic are probably also true. The Russian front in Ukraine is not well defended everywhere, and the initial attack from Ukraine is very obviously designed to probe the Russian fortifications all along the front and find the soft spots where the full force of their attack brigades will be most effective. Ukraine has around 60,000 well trained and highly motivated soldiers with a large supply of weaponry, lying in wait and ready to strike. When that strike happens, Putin will no longer be able to pretend that his "special operation" is anything but a huge mistake that has cost Russia dearly and will continue to haunt them for decades.
Vladimir Putin is probably not going to remain in power for much longer. He might not even be able to escape with his life. The damage to Ukraine is horrific, and will require a lot of effort to repair, but the self-inflicted damage to Russia will probably last longer. Putin will go down in history as yet another insane dictator who destroyed his country.
