Vladimir Putin’s forces continue to suffer huge losses in their invasion with more than 3,000 Russian troops killed in the last three days, according to Ukraine.
In an update on Thursday, Ukraine’s armed forces said that Russia had lost 910 troops the previous day, taking the tally since the start of the war to 135,010.
On Tuesday, Ukraine said Russian forces had lost 1,030 troops in the previous day, the highest tally for a 24-hour period since the start of the war. With Wednesday’s losses also at 910, according to Kyiv, Ukraine’s estimate of Russian personnel deaths over the last three days is 2,850.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
The figures could not be independently verified and Ukraine’s claims of Russia’s losses are much higher than Western estimates.
The death toll from both sides is difficult to gauge and Russia has also claimed that a huge number of Ukrainian troops have been killed. Western officials estimate that Russia is approaching 200,000 casualties—including those killed and wounded—as the war nears its one-year anniversary. Kyiv has warned that Russia is planning another mobilization drive to replenish its high troop losses.
The last update from Moscow on personnel losses was in September 2022 when it said that 5,937 of its troops had died.
However, the purported death toll comes amid accounts from both sides about the deadliest combat of the war and a fierce fight for the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast, as well as near Vuhledar, around 30 miles to the southwest.
Governor of the Luhansk Oblast, Serhiy Haidai, said on Thursday that Russia had stepped up its attacks and was trying to force a breakthrough near the town of Kreminna in his region, although he added: “our defense forces are holding firmly there.”
The Institute for the Study of War said on Wednesday that the Russian offensive, which Kyiv had warned about, had started, and that troops fighting for Moscow had “regained the initiative” following months of setbacks.
The Washington D.C.-based think tank said that Russia had increased its operations along the Svatove-Kreminna line, but Ukrainian forces are “so far preventing Russian forces from securing significant gains.”
Meanwhile, a day after getting a standing ovation in an address to British MPs in which he called for British fighter jets, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told the European Parliament in Brussels that Kyiv needed Europe’s continued military support against Russian aggression. He said that Putin is trying to “annihilate” European values through “total war,” adding, “we will not allow that.”
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