Ukrainian officials regularly update on Russian military casualties. The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said on Facebook that since Putin’s war began on February 24, Russia has lost 36,200 servicemen. Putin also lost 1,589 tanks, 3,754 armored fighting vehicles, 804 artillery systems, 246 multiple rocket launchers, 105 air defense systems, 217 aircraft, 658 operational-tactical UAVs, 15 warships, 2,629 vehicles and tankers1 according to Ukrainian tankers. battle casualty update. Russia rarely discloses its own military casualties. Moscow last released figures on March 25, when a general told state media that 1,351 soldiers had been killed and 3,825 wounded. The UK government said in April that Russia had lost around 15,000 troops. Newsweek was unable to verify each claim. Russian soldiers patrol a street on April 11, 2022, in Volnovakha in the Donetsk region. The photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian military. Russia’s military death toll in Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war has topped 36,000, Ukraine’s armed forces said Monday. ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images Ukraine’s presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day in fighting, amid Moscow’s intensifying bid to seize Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Russia shifted its focus to the Donbas region after failing to capture the capital, Kyiv, in the early stages of the war. Russian forces on Sunday forced Ukrainian soldiers to withdraw from Lysychansk, the last key town under their control in the Luhansk region. Luhansk Governor Serhii Haidai told Reuters on Monday that Russian forces in Ukraine will now step up their offensive to capture all of the Donetsk region. “As far as the army is concerned, it is bad to leave positions, but there is nothing critical (in the loss of Lysychansk). We must win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk,” Haidai said. “He hurts a lot, but he doesn’t lose the war.” Haidai said Russia’s “number one goal” now is to capture the Donetsk region. “Sloviansk and Bakhmut will be attacked – Bakhmut has already started to be bombed very heavily,” he said. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, told RBC-Ukraine separately in an interview that he believes Russia will not stop at Donbas and will seek to destroy the entire country. “Once again I would like to repeat that we were the first to say what will happen and how it will happen. So I can tell you unequivocally that Russia’s plans are the total annihilation of Ukraine, the absolute total annihilation.” Budanov said. “And [as for] any hints about whether Donbas might be enough for them, please don’t even ask me such questions. We will not trade lands.” Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
