Russia Defense Chief's Math Doesn't Add Up—Literally

Russia's defense minister slipped up on Monday when calculating the number of Ukrainian tanks destroyed by Russian forces in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters in Sochi on Monday, Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine has suffered heavy losses in its counteroffensive, with Russian forces destroying multiple tanks in a day. But he miscalculated the total number of tanks taken out by his forces.

Ukraine's counteroffensive to reclaim its territory is now in its fourth month, with particularly heavy clashes taking place along the front lines in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

"Yesterday, as a result of a serious attack in the Robotyne direction, [Ukraine] lost six tanks. In another direction, in Bakhmut, our guys skilfully destroyed six more vehicles with new UAVs. Therefore, yesterday there were eleven [destroyed] armored vehicles alone," said Shoigu.

Russian state-run news agency Interfax appeared to edit Shoigu's quote to exclude mention of the minister saying six more tanks had been destroyed in the Bakhmut direction. Interfax quotes him as saying that in the Bakhmut direction, "our guys skilfully destroyed more vehicles."

The RIA Novosti news agency quoted Shoigu correctly.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Shoigu said on Monday that Russia has destroyed seven Ukrainian naval drones in the last five days alone.

"In the last week alone, seven of these were destroyed—not even in a week, in five days," the defense minister said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly under increasing pressure to take a more aggressive approach to his war against Ukraine and fire and replace Shoigu, and the country's top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation, reported on August 20 that security hardliners want the two men replaced as part of a shift toward the handling of the war.

Shoigu and Gerasimov were accused earlier this year of "treason" by the late Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, for failing to provide his fighters with sufficient ammunition and support as they led an operation to take the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

Prigozhin called for their resignations as he marched on Moscow in an uprising on June 24.

There have been no indications that Putin will remove Shoigu or Gerasimov from their posts.

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