Recent reports from Kyiv reveal the ongoing toll on Russian forces amid their incursion into Ukraine, painting a grim picture of daily losses exceeding 1,000 soldiers for most of the past week, with nearly 6,000 casualties documented over the last five days alone.
According to Ukraine's defense ministry's latest update, released on Wednesday, Russia sustained a loss of 1,120 personnel within the preceding 24 hours, marking the fifth consecutive day that casualties surpassed the 1,000 mark. Tuesday saw Russian forces endure 1,250 losses, with figures of 1,320 and 1,096 on Monday and the two preceding days, respectively, culminating in a five-day total of 5,910 casualties. Over the past week, the total climbed to 7,980, averaging 1,140 losses per day.
The escalation in Russian casualties notably coincides with intensified operations in the Donetsk region, following the capture of Avdiivka by Moscow in February, while Ukraine awaits the arrival of recently approved military aid from the U.S. Congress. March witnessed over 1,000 daily losses on nine occasions, compared to 13 times in February and only four times in January. The cumulative toll of Russian losses throughout the 797-day conflict, as reported by Kyiv, stands at 469,840, translating to a daily average of 560 casualties. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment.
Although the Ukrainian defense ministry describes its figures as "approximate," encompassing both fatalities and injuries, it remains reserved about disclosing its own losses. President Volodymyr Zelensky disclosed in February that 31,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed, although alternate estimates suggest a higher toll.
While Russia has not updated its casualty figures since September 2022, when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported just under 6,000 fatalities, accurately gauging the extent of personnel losses in Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion remains challenging. On April 27, British Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty indicated that Moscow's personnel losses had reached 450,000, mirroring the Ukrainian estimate, which accounts for both fatalities and injuries.
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC Russian, reported on April 26 that 51,679 Russian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, representing an increase of 1,208 since their mid-April update. However, these figures are likely conservative, as they are derived solely from publicly available sources such as obituaries and online notices.
Amid these developments, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces had not made any confirmed advances in the Avdiivka area on Tuesday, even as Moscow focuses its efforts on the town of Chasiv Yar, a target that Kyiv has warned Vladimir Putin aims to capture ahead of the Victory Day celebrations on May 9.
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