The Russian Ministry of Defense on Friday reported that Ukraine’s armed forces lost 2,860 soldiers in Avdiivka during the past seven days of combat.
Moscow’s defense ministry also said Ukraine lost 7 tanks—including two U.S.-made Abrams—and a HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) in Avdiivka over the same period of time. According to the report, Ukraine’s troop losses came as Russia’s military repelled 65 attacks from Kyiv’s forces in positions in and around Avdiivka.
Newsweek has not been able to verify these figures independently, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense was contacted on Friday via email for comment.
After months of fierce fighting in the Donetsk region, Russia scored one of its most significant battlefield wins during two-plus years of war in Ukraine when it pushed Kyiv’s troops out of the town of Avdiivka on February 17. The Kremlin has continued its drive since, and intense battles continue along the front lines of the region as Ukraine looks to reorganize its troops to launch another counteroffensive later this year.
Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that during the past week, its forces successfully repelled eight attacks in the direction of the city of Donetsk, killing over 1,970 troops and destroying 11 tanks in the process.
Elsewhere in the report, Russia claimed its military in the past seven days eliminated 1,620 Ukraine personnel in the southern Donetsk region, 540 troops in the Kupyansk area and 295 soldiers in the Kherson direction.
Russia provided further information about Ukrainian military equipment and weapons it claims were destroyed in the past week.
“The aviation and air defense downed a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 plane, five U.K.-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, a U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile and 796 drones,” the ministry said.
According to the ministry’s report, Russian forces also intercepted seven French-made Hammer-guided bombs and 33 HIMARS MLRS munitions in the past seven days.
Kyiv does not provide updated information on its war casualties. In April 2023, a leaked assessment from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said Ukraine had suffered 124,500 to 131,000 casualties, including 15,500 to 17,500 dead.
Tallies for Russian casualties have also been difficult to confirm throughout the war, and Ukraine’s figures are higher than many other estimates. The Kremlin rarely releases its own numbers, and when it does, the figures are thought to be undercounted.
However, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces on Friday said Russia has lost 422,310 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.