Russia Suffers 'Significant Losses' in a Week as Ukraine Pushes On: Kyiv

Russian forces have "suffered significant losses" over the past seven days, Ukraine said on Monday, as Kyiv presses on with its counteroffensive.

In the past week, more than 4,600 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram on Monday.

Ukrainian forces have captured more than 80 Russian troops in the same time period, Maliar added. "Our defense forces destroyed more than 400 units of enemy equipment and weapons," she wrote. Newsweek cannot independently verify battlefield losses, and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Russia has lost 220,450 soldiers to date, including 630 in the previous 24 hours, according to the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces. On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine had lost up to 950 troops over the past day.

Neither Kyiv nor Moscow provides a running total of their own casualty counts or equipment losses. But both sides are likely sustaining a high number of casualties in Ukraine's long-anticipated counteroffensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Russian losses are "likely the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March," the British government department added in its daily intelligence update.

Moscow and Kyiv have battled for control of the decimated Donetsk city of Bakhmut for many months. The now-destroyed settlement has been labeled a "meat grinder" for both sides and a "slaughter-fest" for Russian forces.

The Kremlin claimed control over Bakhmut in mid-May, which was disputed by the Ukrainian leadership. Kyiv has maintained that fighting continues for control of the city in eastern Ukraine. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said that both sides carried out "limited ground attacks around Bakhmut" on Sunday.

On Monday, Maliar said Ukraine had transferred additional units to Bakhmut. She had previously said Russia had relocated resources from other locations on the front line to Bakhmut.

Eight settlements in eastern and southern Ukraine have been captured by Kyiv in the counteroffensive so far, Maliar added on social media.

Several towns and villages listed by Ukraine as now under its control are in the contested eastern Donetsk region, with two in the annexed Zaporizhzhia region to the southeast.

Included in Maliar's count is the village of Piatikhatky, which a Russian-backed regional official said on Sunday was now in Ukrainian hands. However, this was disputed by Russia, with Moscow's Defense Ministry saying on Sunday that the attack on the settlement was "repulsed."

Yet experts say it is too early to tell how Ukraine's counteroffensive will shape up. They add that operations are still in their initial probing stages.