Russia suffers “highest monthly” losses since war began

Russian casualties hit a record high in May, according to Kyiv, after Ukraine reported the highest daily number of losses since Moscow launched its invasion effort in February 2022.

Russian forces in Ukraine lost 38,940 fighters last month, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday, marking what Ukraine described as the “highest monthly number since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”

Ukraine’s military has regularly reported daily Russian casualties of more than 1,000 throughout the past month. In mid-May, Kyiv’s troops said Moscow lost 1,740 troops in a single day, marking the highest number of daily Russian casualties since the start of all-out war.

Battlefield casualties are notoriously hard to pin down, and analysts urge caution with figures put forward by Russia and Ukraine. Newsweek could not independently verify Kyiv’s claims, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Although Western analysis often puts Russia’s total casualties lower than Ukraine’s estimates, the British Defense Ministry said on Friday that Moscow had likely suffered more than 500,000 casualties since early 2022. Russia’s average daily casualties in May topped 1,200—the highest of the war so far, the U.K. government said.

The painful losses are likely down to Russia’s continued pushes along the front line on Ukrainian positions, personnel lacking proper training, London evaluated. “As a result, Russia employs small-scale but costly wave attacks” to try to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses, the British Defense Ministry added.

Last month, Russia launched an offensive on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, opening up a new front to the war. Ukrainian officials said, however, that fighting in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine blazed on or intensified following the start of cross-border attacks on Kharkiv.

In an operational update, dated at 1:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, Ukraine’s military said Russia had attacked heavily to the west and northwest of the Russian-controlled Donetsk City. Russia has been battling to advance west of the city, including claiming the former Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka—northwest of Donetsk City—back in February. Russia also “increased” activity further north toward Kharkiv, the Ukrainian armed forces said.

In an separate update posted to social media on Saturday morning, Kyiv said Russia sustained 1,130 casualties in the previous 24 hours, bringing Ukraine’s total tally of reported Russian losses to 508,780.

Moscow has not nodded to its own losses since September 2022, when former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said just under 6,000 Russian fighters had been killed.

The BBC’s Russian service and Russian independent outlet Mediazona reported last month that they could confirm the deaths of at least 54,185 Russian soldiers from February 2022, up to May 22, 2024.

Ukraine has also suffered heavy losses, and rarely offers updates on the toll of fending off Russian assaults. In late February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed in two years of war. Russia has said Ukraine’s death toll is much higher, saying Kyiv lost 215,000 soldiers in 2023 alone.

Russia does not offer up a running tally of reported Ukrainian losses, but said on Saturday that Kyiv had lost 1,845 fighters in the past day. Newsweek could not independently verify this count.

In a separate statement on Saturday, Ukraine said Russian artillery losses were at their highest point of the war last month, reaching 1,160 systems destroyed.