Russia lost 40 artillery systems and 15 tanks in one day, according to a Tuesday update from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, amid Kyiv’s grinding counteroffensive.
The General Staff said in a post on social media that, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Moscow has lost 279,440 troops, 4,732 tanks, 9,008 armored personnel vehicles, 315 aircraft, 316 helicopters, and 6,565 artillery systems.
Newsweek has not been able to independently verify Ukraine’s figures. Estimates of military casualties in the conflict vary widely, with figures provided by Ukraine usually outstripping those given by its Western allies. Russia rarely releases figures on its own troop losses, but when it does, its estimates are far lower than those of Ukraine.
Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Both Ukraine and Russia are suffering mounting losses, nearly four months since the start of Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive.
The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine, said Kyiv’s forces marginally advanced in the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia Oblast border area amid continued counteroffensive operations in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and near Bakhmut on Monday.
The think tank said geolocated footage published on Monday indicates that Ukrainian forces made small gains northwest of Novomayorske, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces continued offensive operations in the Melitopol, western Zaporizhzhia Oblast, and Bakhmut directions, which has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war.
The ISW said it is updating its Sunday assessment that Ukrainian forces lost positions in a trench system southwest of Robotyne, a key village on Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia front, to Russian counterattacks between September 13 and 30.
The think tank said geolocated footage published on Monday and satellite imagery indicate that Ukrainian forces likely retook these positions sometime between September 12 and 17 and currently hold them.
Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday that his country’s “Army of Drones” struck a record number of Russian artillery pieces last week.
“Last week was a real catastrophe for Russian artillery,” Fedorov said. “The Army of Drones did its best to make it happen. The total number of damaged equipment = 220 pieces. Drone pilots continue to rock & setting new records.”
The “Army of Drones” program is a Ukrainian government initiative and fundraising campaign to purchase drones for Ukraine’s defense forces, according to news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
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