Russia Losses Soar to 1,030 Troops, 23 Tanks and 47 ACVs in a Day: Kyiv

Russia suffered its highest casualty rate in Ukraine for over two weeks, according to Kyiv, whose latest figures outline the high cost of troops and equipment Moscow is facing in its full-scale invasion.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russia had lost 1,030 troops the previous day—the biggest casualty count since March 26, when the same number was recorded. This has taken the total number of losses since the start of the full-scale invasion to 452,760. The grim milestone of 450,000 Russian losses was reached earlier this week.

Ukraine’s also said on Saturday that Russian forces had lost 23 tanks over the previous day, and 47 armored combat vehicles (ACVs), taking the total losses of these pieces of equipment over the course of the war to 7,169 and 13,745 respectively.

Kyiv’s estimates of troop losses are described as “approximate” and include both dead and injured and show a spike following a week of losses of around 700-800 a day. The last time it was higher was on March 22, when Kyiv’s casualty count for Russia was 1,050.

The highest tally so far this year is 1,290 recorded on February 18 and the overall highest since President Vladimir Putin started the war more than two years ago is 1,380 on October 19, 2023.

Accurate figures of Russian losses are hard to come by and other estimates give lower tallies such as the British government’s estimate from March 3 that Russian casualties—killed and wounded—had reached 355,000.

However, this week Ukrainian military intelligence published unverified audio it said showed a Russian soldier in the Belgorod region complaining about high troops losses among his comrades as he described a “total f****** mess” of a wartime strategy.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

It comes as Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a Telegram post that the situation on the eastern front has “deteriorated significantly” following increasing Russian attacks in recent days.

Syrsky also said that Russian forces had superior weapons and described how Moscow had stepped up its offensive following the presidential election last month.

He said that the situation around the eastern frontline city of Chasiv Yar, 12 miles west of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, is “difficult and tense.”

With a U.S. aid package for Kyiv held up in Congress, Syrsky reiterated Ukraine’s calls for more Western military assistance to help achieve “technical superiority over the enemy in high-tech weapons.”

“Only this will enable us to defeat a larger enemy and create conditions for seizing the strategic initiative,” Syrsky said, adding that Ukraine also needed to improve the quality of its personnel training.