Russian forces in Ukraine have lost nearly 1,300 troops and 32 armored personnel vehicles (APVs) in the past 24 hours, as the country’s troops advance near the eastern Donetsk town of Avdiivka.
Moscow has lost a total of 330,040 fighters since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and 1,280 military personnel died in the past 24 hours. This is according to figures released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Friday.
Newsweek could not independently verify the battlefield figures, and has reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday for comment via email. British defense officials have said that Moscow’s heavy losses have largely been caused by Russia’s offensive against Avdiivka. Estimates of casualty figures vary, with Kyiv’s figures usually exceeding those of Western countries.
Russia has also lost a total of 10,372 APVs, 5,564 tanks and 7,931 artillery systems in the ongoing war, the Ukrainian military’s update said.
Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, said on Wednesday that Russia’s military “has lost a substantial part of its conventional forces. Hundreds of aircraft. Thousands of tanks. And more than 300,000 casualties.”
James Heappey, the U.K.’s armed forces minister, told Britain’s lawmakers in November that British officials believed around 302,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
A joint investigation by the BBC’s Russian Service and independent Russian news outlet Mediazona on November 17 identified the names of 37,052 Russian military personnel who have died in the war in Ukraine. It said that the actual number of losses was higher than the figures stated in the investigation.
Russia itself rarely releases figures on troop losses. In September 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 5,937 of Moscow’s troops had been killed in the war.
Kyiv similarly does not release updated death tolls. In April, a leaked U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment said that Kyiv had suffered 124,500 to 131,000 casualties, including 15,500 to 17,500 dead.
The update comes as Russian troops are reported to be pushing forward to Avdiivka, where losses on both sides are believed to be high.
The Institute for the Study of War, an independent U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday that Russian forces continued offensive operations in the Avdiivka direction on November 29 and reportedly advanced northwest of the settlement.
“Russian milbloggers claimed that Russian forces advanced between 300 and 500 meters [985 and 1,640 feet] in the direction of Novokalynove (10km [6.2 miles] northwest of Avdiivka) and near Stepove (7km [4.3 miles] northwest of Avdiivka), although ISW has not yet observed visual evidence of Russian advances in either of these areas,” the think tank said.
The British defense ministry said in an intelligence update on November 27 that the last six weeks have likely seen some of the highest Russian casualty rates of the war so far.
“Throughout November 2023, Russian casualties, as reported by the Ukrainian General Staff, are running at a daily average of 931 per day,” British defense officials said, noting that the heavy losses have largely been caused by Russia’s offensive against Avdiivka.
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