Russia has lost 541,560 troops in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February 2022, according to unverified claims by Kyiv.
The latest reported figures were included in an update by the General Staff of Ukraine‘s Armed Forces on June 29, which also reported that Moscow had suffered 1,070 casualties in just the past day alone.
According to the report, Putin’s forces have also lost 8,073 tanks, 15,505 armoured fighting vehicles, 19,568 vehicles and fuel tanks, 14,480 artillery systems, 1,109 multiple launch rocket systems, 871 air defence systems, 360 airplanes, 326 helicopters, 11,538 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.
Battlefield losses are notoriously difficult to verify, and reported casualty counts can fluctuate. However, even Western intelligence agencies put Russian casualties in the hundreds of thousands.
Russia closely guards its own figures, but even in the first year of the war, it admitted “significant losses of troops”, with Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov admitting it was a “huge tragedy” for the country.
Kyiv says its tallies are “approximate”, and clarified in March that its daily tally of Russian losses included personnel who were injured, as well as killed.
Until August last year, Ukraine had referred to losses as “liquidated” which was frequently interpreted by news media as indicating “killed” personnel.
According to US, British and other Western intelligence agencies, Russia saw an average of more than 1,000 of its soldiers injured or killed each day last month, The New York Times reports.
However, Moscow is managing to recruit around 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers monthly, according to US officials.
Ukraine‘s casualty figures are also difficult to determine, though several US officials insist they do not have an accurate account, according to the outlet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the first two years of the conflict, but American officials reportedly say that appears to be an understatement of the reality.
Kyiv’s latest update comes as Russian shelling of front-line villages in eastern Ukraine killed four people while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian attack ripped through a nine-story residential building, leaving one dead, officials said Saturday.
Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.
The shelling of the front-line village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also left five injured, said Gov. Vadym Filashkin. He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.
In Dnipro, at least one person died and 12 were injured, including a 7-month-old girl, after a Russian strike destroyed the top four floors of the apartment bloc Friday evening, regional head Serhii Lysak said.
Kyiv has also struck back at Russia with its own aerial attacks.
A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday. Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gov. Alexey Smirnov said on social media.
In its morning statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. It did not give information on the reported strike in the Kursk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country had lost about 80 percent of its thermal power and one-third of its hydroelectric power in recent Russian strikes.
Discussing the attack in Dnipro, Zelenskyy said it was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defence systems. The Ukrainian air force said Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones overnight.