Nearly 160 Russian Troops Killed in 220 Missile, Artillery Attacks: Ukraine

The Ukrainian military says that it killed nearly 160 Russian troops after launching missile and artillery strikes as part of its massive counteroffensive in southern Ukraine.

Vladyslav Nazarov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Operational Command South (OCS), said on Tuesday that an estimated 159 Russian soldiers had been killed and 60 units of Russian military equipment were destroyed overnight. Over 220 missile and artillery attacks, on targets that included three bridges, were reportedly launched by Ukraine around the same time.

A Facebook post by OCS said that the Russian equipment destroyed included five T-72 tanks, three Msta-B howitzers, 5 anti-tank missile systems, an S-300 surface-to-air missile system, an electronic warfare station and radar station, a 120 mm mobile mortar system and 40 units of armored and automotive equipment.

OCS reported that the situation in southern Ukraine "remains difficult" but was "controlled by" the Ukrainian military. Ukraine warned that the threat of missile attacks from a Russian fleet stationed in the Black Sea was still "relevant."

Nazarov said that a Russian missile attack on Mykolaiv's Bashtansky district had resulted in no casualties, while artillery strikes on the Nikopol district in Dnipropetrovsk had caused damage to residential buildings and injured one civilian.

Different Ukrainian officials have reported that Russian shelling of civilian targets in other parts of the country resulted in at least six deaths and 15 injuries on Tuesday. One Russian military leader claimed that Ukrainian saboteurs were "destroyed" in Kherson's Tavrichesky microdistrict on Tuesday morning.

The goals of Ukraine's counteroffensive include retaking Kherson, the largest city to come under Russian control since the invasion began on February 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also suggested that the southern push could precede an effort to retake Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

On Monday, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the counteroffensive was exposing shortages of Russian military personnel, with the "looming threat" forcing Russia to transfer forces to the south from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

On the same day, a senior U.S. military official said during a Department of Defense (DoD) briefing that the number of Ukrainian troops was "much greater" in the southern part of the country than in the east, in terms of "equality or parity" with Russian troops.

The U.S. official added that Ukraine's military leaders "are students in military doctrine" and "understand that conducting an attack takes a greater number of forces than if you were on the defense."

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that the Russian military would be increased by 137,000 personnel, bringing the total number of troops to 1.15 million.

A senior U.S. defense official said that Putin's plan was "unlikely to succeed" during Monday's DoD briefing, adding that "Russia has historically not met personnel and strength targets" and predicting that the new recruits would largely be "older, unfit and ill-trained."

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian government for comment.