Russia Hits Major Artillery Loss Milestone

Russia's military hit a major milestone in its artillery losses in the war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

"14,000 — russian artillery losses since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. We continue to destroy russian weapons. We pave our path to Victory," Ukraine's Ministry of Defense said in a post on its social media channels.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, which posts figures on Russia's troop and equipment losses as part of its daily update on the war, said Russia lost 48 artillery systems in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 14,007.

Its latest update on Wednesday, Ukraine's military said Russia lost 1,130 soldiers over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 529,750.

Moscow has also lost a total of 15,319 armored combat vehicles, 7,984 tanks, 19,078 vehicles and fuel tanks, 857 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 359 military jets, 326 helicopters and 28 warships in the ongoing war, Kyiv's military said.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia release detailed or regular casualty numbers. Newsweek has not independently verified these figures and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Russia and Ukraine are suffering significant losses of its troops and equipment as fighting ramps up in Ukraine's east. Moscow kick-started an offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10, seizing a number of villages on Ukraine's northeastern frontier.

Yurii Povkh, spokesman for the Kharkiv Operational Strategic Group, told Ukrainska Pravda in remarks published Wednesday that dozens of Russian soldiers had been cut off at a building site in the city of Vovchansk in the region.

He refuted an earlier report by Forbes published on Monday that hundreds of Russian servicemen were surrounded in a chemical plant in Vovchansk.

"I would like to point out that, first of all, the Russians do not operate with the numbers of personnel mentioned in this report. The figure of 400 people is impossible to confirm because it does not exist," he said.

"Regarding the blocking of a particular Russian unit at a building site in the city of Vovchansk, this is a fact. However, there are not hundreds, but dozens of invaders who are currently cut off in a specific area of the city."

Moscow rarely shares information on the number of casualties it has suffered in the war. However, in a rare statement on losses in Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference on June 5 that the ratio of "irretrievable losses" between Russia and Ukraine was one to five in favor of Moscow, without elaborating.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in its latest update on Tuesday that its military has so far destroyed 613 Ukrainian aircraft, 276 helicopters, 25,934 unmanned aerial vehicles, 531 anti-aircraft missile systems, 16,374 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,344 combat vehicles of multiple launch rocket systems, 10,645 pieces of field artillery and mortars, as well as 22,687 units of special military vehicles.

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