Ukraine's Losses of HIMARS, Patriot Launchers in 2024, According to Moscow

The first three months of 2024 have seen a sharp increase in losses of Western-supplied military materiel for Ukraine, according to Russia's defense minister Sergei Shoigu.

Ukraine has lost six HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and five Patriot air defense missile launchers since the beginning of the year, Shoigu said, according to a Kremlin readout.

Russia has claimed to have destroyed HIMARS throughout the full-scale war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Online footage earlier this month appears to confirm for the first time the loss of a Ukrainian HIMARS. The U.S. has sent 39 HIMARS to Ukraine, according to Pentagon documents, and committed additional HIMARS rockets in an aid package announced earlier this month.

Ukraine has lauded the performance of HIMARS and has a similar attitude towards Patriots, which have been credited with intercepting Russian hypersonic missiles and are considered the gold-standard of air defense systems. Kyiv has lobbied hard for more Patriots, the U.S. having sent one battery to date, with Kyiv obtaining a handful of the systems from other sources.

Each Patriot battery has several launchers that contain and fire missiles. Reports suggested earlier this month that a Russian missile strike took out two Patriot launchers traveling with a Ukrainian convoy.

Ukrainian forces had stationed Patriot batteries close to the front line, but it is unclear how many launchers Russia has successfully targeted, Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher with the War Studies Department at King's College London, told Newsweek.

Since the start of 2024, Russia has claimed to have destroyed an array of Western-supplied, Ukrainian-operated equipment. Western analysts and Ukrainian sources have suggested that Russia has adapted its techniques, shortening the time between locating key Ukrainian assets and striking the equipment before Kyiv can move systems like HIMARS elsewhere.

Shoigu also claimed on Wednesday that Kyiv had lost four U.S.-made Abrams tanks, 27 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and five German-manufactured Leopard tanks. The Ukrainian military has been contacted for comment.

Ukraine's 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade used Abrams and Bradleys in fierce clashes around the Donetsk city of Avdiivka, which Russia captured in mid-February, and in the subsequent battles west of the strategic settlement.

The likes of Abrams tanks have only recently reached the front lines, because Ukraine had been holding them back, Miron previously told Newsweek. With restraints placed on Ukraine's ability to camouflage its key equipment, and the fact that heavy Western tanks are little suited to muddy terrain across Ukraine, Moscow is having more success taking out Kyiv's equipment, she said.

Shoigu said Ukraine had sustained approximately 71,000 casualties since January 2024.

This is very similar to the Russian casualty figures put forward by Ukraine's military — Kyiv's tally puts Russian casualties so far this year at approximately 72,000.

Casualties and death tolls in conflict zones are notoriously opaque, and analysts counsel caution with figures published by governments at war. Experts suggest both sides likely inflate the other's reported losses, and neither Moscow nor Kyiv habitually offer an indication of the damage wrought on their own militaries.

Russia has likely sustained more than 335,000 casualties since February 2022, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said earlier this month.

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