“Destroyed"? Don't you mean "killed" columns of Russian soldiers? Even if they are in the wrong, these are still lives that are lost, not some equipment.
In the military it's common to talk about groups of soldiers the same way you talk about equipment. Because the crucial information isn't their humanity, it's their utility to the war effort. "Destroyed" is usually used to mean a unit is so broken it must be combined with other units and different militaries have different definitions of exactly how many casualties that takes.