Russia issues new estimate of Ukrainian combat losses

The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 8,000 troops and a significant number of military equipment over the course of November, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu insisted on Tuesday.

Shoigu declared that, in November, Kiev’s losses amounted to more than 8,300 military personnel, five airplanes, ten helicopters, 149 tanks and more than 300 armored fighting vehicles. He added that Russia’s forces have inflicted considerable damage to Kiev's military potential using long-range precision weapons to conduct massive strikes against Ukrainian military command centers and military-industrial complex facilities.

In late September, Shoigu claimed that Ukrainian forces had suffered a total of more than 61,000 combat losses since Moscow launched its military operation against Kiev in February. He also noted that Russia’s losses were ten times less, at around 6,000 soldiers.

While Kiev has refrained from releasing official casualty numbers of its armed forces, it has disputed the figures provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. President Vladimir Zelensky stated in September that the Ukrainian army was losing some 50 people a day, but noted that it was “five times less” than Russian casualties.

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen published a speech in which she claimed that “more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers” had been killed during the conflict. The video, however, was later deleted and re-uploaded without the casualty estimate after it sparked outrage in Kiev, which claimed that it was “sensitive information” that should only be released by top Ukrainian officials.