Russia on Course for Deadliest Week in Months: Kyiv

Russia's daily personnel losses have surpassed 1,000 for the fifth time in the last seven days, according to Kyiv's latest figures.

In its update on Tuesday, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said that Russia had lost 1,250 troops over the previous day, taking the total since the start of the war to approximately 468,720.

The latest daily total is the fourth day running that Russian losses have topped four figures, following Kyiv's announcement on Monday of 1,320 the previous day, 1,096 the day before that, and 1,124 on April 27.

Over the past week, the spike in the daily tally, which includes both those killed and injured, follows a push by Russian forces in the Donetsk region, following their capture of the town of Avdiivka in February. It comes as Kyiv awaits the delivery of military assistance approved by U.S. Congress.

According to Kyiv, there were 1,040 Russian casualties on April 25, and the tally over the last week has been 7,660. This is a daily average of 1,094—almost twice the mean of 588 over the entire course of the war, signaling how Russian losses have increased significantly in the latter half of April. In March, the 1,000 daily figure was surpassed nine times, 13 times in February, and only four times in January.

An accurate number of Russian losses in the war is difficult to ascertain with Ukraine's tally higher than other estimates. Moscow has not updated its official number of losses revealed in September 2022 as just under 6,000.

However, a British estimate has come close, with U.K. Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Leo Doherty saying on April 27 that Russia had personnel losses of 450,000, which like the Ukrainian figure, includes those who have been killed or wounded.

Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for Khortytsia Operational and Strategic Troop Grouping, said on April 25 that 85 percent of Russian losses of personnel and equipment took place in the eastern direction of the front.

In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian losses totaled 180,000 killed and up to 500,000 wounded as he revealed for the first time that 31,000 of his troops had been killed, although this is believed to be an underestimate.

On April 26, independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, along with BBC Russian, confirmed they had the names of 51,679 Russian soldiers killed in the war, an increase of 1,208 since its last update in mid-April.

The outlets emphasize that the actual figures are likely considerably higher since their figures only come from public sources such as obituaries, social media posts and reports by local authorities. Its tally includes over 3,400 officers, with 395 holding the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.