Russian forces have lost 810 fighters, 12 tanks and 24 artillery systems in a single day, according to Kyiv, as Russia's high rate of losses shows few signs of slowing.
Moscow has now lost a total of 295,510 soldiers in the 20 months since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv's military said in an update on Tuesday. Russia has also lost a total of 5,105 tanks and 7,081 artillery systems, according to Ukraine's General Staff.
Throughout the war effort, Russian personnel and equipment losses are thought to have been high, and Western analysts broadly agree with Ukraine's tallies. Kyiv has also taken tough hits to its cache of military equipment, and lost many soldiers in the grueling war of attrition.
Ukraine has lost 12,882 tanks and armored combat vehicles since February last year, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday. Ukrainian forces have also lost 6,853 field artillery and mortar guns, Moscow added.
Newsweek cannot independently verify either tally, and has reached out to Russian and Ukrainian officials for comment via email. Both Moscow and Kyiv are tight-lipped about their own losses, rarely nodding to their own casualty counts or how much equipment has been destroyed.
"It is very difficult to determine casualties in an ongoing conflict since both sides will try to keep the data secret and inflate the number of adversary casualties," Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, U.K., told Newsweek back in May.
But a recent push on the Donetsk town of Avdiivka is believed to have cost Russia dearly. The town, which has been on the front lines between Kyiv and Russian-backed forces for nine years, earlier this month became the target of Russia's first assault on Ukrainian positions since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in early June.
Russian forces have kept up efforts to encircle Avdiivka, "actively using its aircraft, but the Ukrainian soldiers are standing their ground, inflicting major losses on the enemy," Ukraine's General Staff said on Tuesday. Its fighters rebuffed more than 10 enemy attacks along the front lines in Donetsk to the west and north of Avdiivka, as well as around the town itself, the Ukrainian military said.
Russia is committing its light infantry soldiers to "certain death," Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Tavria group of forces covering Avdiivka, told Newsweek last week.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday that 165 Ukrainian fighters were taken out of action along the Donetsk front line over the past day, but did not offer up an assessment of Avdiivka.
Russian forces advanced around Avdiivka on Monday, including to the northeast of the town, the U.S-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in its latest update. Over the weekend, the think tank said Ukraine had likely weathered "another intensified Russian offensive effort" around Avdiivka, and had "inflicted further heavy personnel and equipment losses on Russian troops in the area."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. military, weapons systems and emerging technology. She joined Newsweek in January 2023, having previously worked as a reporter at the Daily Express, and is a graduate of International Journalism at City, University of London.
Languages: English, Spanish.
You can reach Ellie via email at e.cook@newsweek.com.
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