Russia lost 6,030 soldiers in Ukraine during the past week, according to a Monday update from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. The news comes as Kyiv’s forces reportedly conducted multiple strikes on Russian positions over the weekend.
The General Staff said Russia has suffered a total of 305,970 troops losses since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That number includes 880 casualties suffered over the past day. Russia passed the 300,000 mark in Kyiv’s tally on October 31, when it hit 300,810 losses.
Newsweek has not been able to independently verify Ukraine’s figures, and other estimates tend to be more conservative than Kyiv’s. The Kremlin does not frequently comment on its own estimates of troops casualties, and when it does, experts have said its numbers are not accurate. Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Photo by Oleksandr Stavytskyy/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank wrote on Sunday that “Ukrainian forces reportedly intensified strikes on rear Russian areas in southern Ukraine and occupied Crimea.”
In its most recent assessment of the war, ISW said that along with strikes on Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast on Saturday and Sunday, Ukraine attempted an unsuccessful drone strike at an oil refinery railway in Dzhankoi, Crimea, on Sunday.
The ISW also noted that a Russian military blogger claimed Kyiv’s armed forces “conducted a Storm Shadow missile strike on Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, on November 5.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Kyiv’s military continued offensive missions near the long-contested city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast. The ISW reported Ukraine’s forces additionally “made confirmed gains in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast on November 5.”
Ukraine’s forces also expanded its foothold on the Russian-controlled bank of the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, according to geolocated footage cited by ISW.
Heavy fighting continues near Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, where Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military has dedicated heavy resources. However, Kyiv reported, Putin’s forces have sustained heavy losses in their efforts to capture Avdiivka.
Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade said in a Monday Telegram post that Russia has seen nearly 7,000 soldiers killed or wounded in Avdiivka during the past three weeks of fighting. The post also said Russia has lost 100 tanks and 250 other armored vehicles in the city during the same time period.
“Russian occupiers are unable to surround Avdiivka thanks to the actions of our defenders,” the brigade wrote.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.