Recent figures from Kyiv continue to paint a grim picture of the toll taken on Russian forces amid their invasion of Ukraine, with daily casualty numbers exceeding 1,000 on most days over the past week and nearly 6,000 total losses over the last five days alone.
According to Ukraine‘s defence ministry’s latest update on Wednesday, Russia incurred 1,120 personnel casualties in the last 24 hours, marking the fifth consecutive day that casualty numbers have surpassed 1,000.
The escalating casualties for Russia include 1,250 losses on Tuesday, 1,320 on Monday, and 1,096 and 1,124 in the two days prior, totalling 5,910 over the past five days. In the last week, the total reached 7,980, averaging 1,140 casualties per day.
Russian losses surged in the latter half of April amid intensified fighting in the Donetsk region following Moscow’s capture of Avdiivka in February.
Kyiv is anticipating the delivery of military assistance recently greenlit by the US Congress.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry describes the figures as “approximate” and inclusive of both killed and injured personnel.
Meanwhile, Russia has not updated its casualty figures since September 2022, making it challenging to gauge the full extent of personnel losses in Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion.
British Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty stated on April 27 that Moscow’s personnel losses had reached 450,000, aligning with the Ukrainian estimate, which includes killed or wounded individuals.
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC Russian, reported that 51,679 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war as of their last update in mid-April, with over 3,400 officers among them.
However, the outlets caution that the actual figure is likely higher, given that the tally is based solely on publicly available sources.
Amid these mounting losses, Ukrainian General Staff noted that Russian forces had not made any confirmed advances in the Avdiivka area on Tuesday.
Ukrainian authorities have cautioned that Vladimir Putin seeks to capture Chasiv Yar before the Victory Day celebrations on May 9.
