Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has shared data showing that Russia endured its second-highest single-day loss of military personnel on October 18.
Citing reports from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense reported that Russia lost 1,530 personnel on Friday, which would be the second-highest number of men lost in one day since Russia began its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
According to an index sourced from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the highest number of lost military personnel in one day was on May 12, when 1,740 men were reportedly killed.
The total of lost Russian military personnel has now reached 675,800, according to the data.
Ukrainian soldiers taking part in a training exercise in England operated by Britain’s armed forces as part of the Interflex program on February 24. Data shared by the Ukraine Ministry of Defense showed that Russia experienced its second-highest day of military personnel losses on October 18.
Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images
Death toll calculations are impossible to verify, with reports on the death toll on both sides showing different estimations, Al Jazeera reported.
Per the outlet, the Russian Ministry of Defense estimated in a report last month that Kyiv has lost almost half a million men since the start of the war, while Western sources estimated some 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since February 2022.
Al Jazeera reported, citing the Russian media outlet Mediazona, that more than 71,000 Russian soldiers were confirmed as killed in Ukraine by late September. According to Reuters, a U.S. intelligence report estimated that the conflict had cost Russia almost 90 percent of its personnel by 2023.
Russia reportedly does not publish its military losses, and neither does Ukraine, so reports on both sides have been disputed, according to Reuters.
Newsweek has contacted the Ministries of Defense for Ukraine and Russia for comment.
In addition to military personnel, on October 18, Russia reportedly lost another 13 tanks, 51 armored vehicles, 23 artillery systems, 48 unmanned aerial vehicles, 93 cars and cisterns, and two special equipment items.
The costliest day for the Russian military was on August 26, when the cost of its equipment losses was $400,770,000, according to an index based on data from Forbes Ukraine.
Per the data, the total cost of the losses of all Russia’s equipment has now reached $73,574,300,000.
In both cases, of measuring the losses and their costs, the index notes its calculations are “very approximate, and do not claim to be absolutely accurate.”
The number of single-day Russian military personnel losses has reached 1,400 on a few days, according to the same data. On September 21, another high of 1,500 personnel losses was reported.
On October 16, the Institute for the Study of War reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a victory plan to the Ukrainian parliament that seeks to end the war before 2026.
U.S. President Joe Biden promised a package of aid for Ukraine worth $425 million after a phone call with Zelensky on the same day, the report added.
The report also said Russia’s forces had advanced in northern Kharkiv Oblast—near Kreminna, near Siversk, and near Toretsk—while Ukraine’s forces advanced near Toretsk and Pokrovsk.
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