The Russian military has reportedly lost 1,450 troops as well as nearly 200 pieces of military equipment in one of the deadliest – and costliest – days for Vladimir Putin’s forces since the invasion began.
On Thursday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry released its latest estimate of losses suffered by “the Russian occupiers in Ukraine,” based on reports provided by the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Fighting continues on both sides of the frontlines, with Russian forces recently gaining an upper hand with the capture of Vuhledar, a Ukrainian stronghold in Donetsk, and its success in pushing back Kyiv’s forces from the Kursk region.
However, continued losses sustained by Moscow – both in terms of human capital and materiel – raise questions of how much more attritional warfare Russia can endure.
According to the Ukraine’s defense ministry, Russia lost 1,450 troops between Wednesday and Thursday, one of the highest single-day death tolls since the country launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi during an event dedicated to Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. On Oct. 16, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that Russia had lost 1,450 troops in just 24 hours.
Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
While well below the record 1,740 it reportedly lost on May 12, which occurred amid an intense period of fighting in the Kharkiv region, this is the highest figure since Sept. 17 (1,470), and brings Kyiv’s total estimate of Russian casualties to 672,850.
As well as sustaining significant troop casualties, Russia also reportedly lost 177 pieces of military equipment, including 78 vehicles and fuel tanks, 31 unmanned aerial vehicles, 29 artillery systems, 30 armored fighting vehicles and nine tanks.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance, drawing on calculations provided by Forbes Ukraine, this takes the total cost of equipment lost by Russia in Ukraine to over $73 billion.
An explosion is seen during a drone piloting training for FPV drone operators at the UAV centre of the Zapad Russian group of forces, in the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. On Thursday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported that Russia had lost 177 pieces of military equipment in one day, including 78 vehicles and fuel tanks, 31 unmanned aerial vehicles, 29 artillery systems, 30 armored fighting vehicles and nine tanks.
Evgeny Biyatov/Sputnik via AP
Ukraine’s ministries admit that the figures are approximate, and these far outpace estimates provided by other, unaffiliated researchers.
On Sept. 20, the BBC released its estimate of Russian fatalities in Ukraine, corroborated by family members or local authorities, putting the figure at over 70,000 since Feb. 2022.
While the true figure likely lies between these estimates, casualties on both sides have reached breathtaking levels over 900 days into the conflict.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing undisclosed Ukrainian and Western intelligence sources, that Ukraine and Russia had lost 80,000 and 200,000, respectively, since fighting broke out.
As it admitted, establishing the exact number of fatalities is a difficult task, with both countries declining to publish official figures of their own losses.
However, Ukraine denied the number of Ukrainian deaths published by The Wall Street Journal, with Roman Kostenko, a Kyiv politician and Security Service Colonel, telling Radio Svoboda: “I think this is exaggerated data.” He suggested that even an estimate of 50,000 could be overinflated.
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