Russia Loses Nearly 7,000 Troops and 100 Tanks in a Week: Kyiv

A Ukrainian serviceman stands near a destroyed Russian tank in the northeastern city of Trostyanets’, on March 29, 2022. Russia has nearly 7,000 troops, 98 tanks and more than 200 artillery systems in the past week, according to Ukraine’s military, as Moscow advances on several points along the frontline.

Russia has lost nearly 7,000 troops, 98 tanks and more than 200 artillery systems in the past week, according to Ukraine’s military, as Moscow advances on several points along the frontline.

Moscow has lost a total of 416,800 troops since February 2022, Kyiv’s military said in updated statistics on Sunday. Russia has also lost 6,640 tanks in the more than two years of full-scale war, and 10,188 artillery systems, Ukraine said.

Accurate casualty counts and equipment losses are notoriously difficult to pin down. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

It is not entirely clear how Ukraine’s military calculates its daily-updated figure for Russian personnel losses. However, if it includes overall casualties, as well as Russian fighters who are missing or died in non-combat circumstances, it is a “perfectly plausible” tally, Nick Reynolds, a research fellow for land warfare at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Newsweek last month.

But the figures do offer an insight into the toll the years of war have taken on Russia’s military. In late January, Britain’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, told U.K. lawmakers that Russia had sustained around 350,000 casualties in Ukraine, excluding mercenary fighters.

The Kremlin rarely comments on its own casualty counts, and Kyiv offers only sporadic updates on its own losses.

Russia does not publish a running tally of purported Ukrainian losses, but Moscow said on Sunday that Ukraine had lost almost 1,000 soldiers in the previous 24 hours. Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military for comment via email.

In late February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the more than two years of fighting.

In August 2023, U.S. officials told The New York Times that around 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, with up to 120,000 wounded.

The losses come as Russia presses forward at several points along the current frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine, gaining territory from Ukrainian forces waiting on more aid deliveries from their Western backers.

Russia claimed the former Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka, in the country’s eastern Donetsk region, last month. In the weeks since, Russia has advanced westward, capturing a handful of villages, including Stepove, Lastochkyne and Sieverne.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s military said it had repelled more than a dozen attacks over the past 24 hours, including around Orlivka, northwest of Lastochkyne, and Berdychi, north of Orlivka. Russia said on Sunday its forces had fought off 11 Ukrainian counterattacks, including around Orlivka and Berdychi.

Geolocated footage shows Russian forces have advanced in central and eastern Orlivka in recent days, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday.

“The Russian military command is reportedly committing additional elements to offensive operations west of Avdiivka, further suggesting that Russian forces intend to continue their efforts to advance as far as possible before Ukrainian forces establish harder-to-penetrate defenses,” the think tank argued in its latest assessment.

Moscow’s troops have also advanced to the west and south of the Russian-controlled city of Kreminna, the ISW said on Saturday, including east of the village of Terny. Ukraine said on Sunday that it had repelled attacks around Terny and the village of Tabaivka, northwest of the Moscow-controlled city of Svatove.

The ISW has previously dubbed Russia’s increased operations around Svatove, Kreminna and Kupiansk—a key railway hub—a “cohesive multi-axis offensive operation.”

Russia is “having some success” in this sector of the frontline, the commander of the 13th Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard told Newsweek on Tuesday.

Moscow has also made some gains in the village of Krynky, on the east bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region where Ukraine has been working to expand control, the ISW said on Saturday.

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