Russian forces in Ukraine have lost 17 artillery systems and 33 drones in the past day, Kyiv's military said on Wednesday.
Moscow's forces have lost a total of 4,402 artillery systems and 3,726 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, according to an updated count published by the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces to social media.
Newsweek could not independently verify these figures and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Both artillery and drones have played key roles in the ongoing war. Artillery and ammunition have featured high on military aid sent to Kyiv, and the conflict is "a war of drones," Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, told Newsweek in February.
The drone war was "very much escalating," Steve Wright, senior research fellow in avionics and aircraft systems at the University of the West of England, commented to Newsweek earlier this month.
Russian forces carried out 15 drone strikes using Iranian-made Shahed UAVs overnight, the General Staff said in an operational update on Wednesday. The drones were launched from the Russian city of Kursk, close to Ukraine's northeastern border with Russia, the General Staff said.
Ukrainian air defense destroyed 11 of the UAVs using anti-aircraft missile systems, fighter aircraft and mobile fire groups, Ukraine's air force said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the General Staff said it had it shot down 26 out of 28 Shahed drones launched by Russia over the previous day. The UAVs were launched from the Primorsko-Akhtarsk military base in Russia's Krasnodar region, the military said.
These drone strikes were likely a "a demonstrative response to the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius and to threaten the Black Sea grain deal," the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said on Tuesday.
The grain deal, which expires on July 17, allows Ukraine to export grain to the rest of the world via the Black Sea thereby staving off an international food crisis.
Ukrainian forces continued with counteroffensive efforts along at least three points of the front line on Tuesday, the ISW evaluated, adding they had "made gains in some areas."
In its previous assessment on Monday, the ISW said Ukraine's troops had taken "nearly the same amount of territory that Russian forces captured in over six months" since the counteroffensive began five weeks ago.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview transcript published on Tuesday that since the start of the counteroffensive, Ukraine has lost 26,000 soldiers, 21 aircraft and 1,244 tanks and armored fighting vehicles. These figures are unlikely to be accurate, the ISW said.
