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Russian forces in Ukraine have lost 12 tanks, 14 armored personnel vehicles and 19 artillery systems in just 24 hours, Kyiv's military said on Monday, as its grinding counteroffensive nears its third month in the south and east of the country.
Moscow has lost a total of 4,358 tanks and 8,449 armored personnel vehicles since Russian troops crossed Ukraine's borders in February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said in an update on Monday.
It is difficult to get an accurate picture of both Moscow and Kyiv's military equipment losses, although Western experts have suggested that Ukraine's tally of destroyed, damaged or captured Russian tanks and armored vehicles is likely to be relatively accurate.
Other estimates, such as that published by Dutch open-source intelligence outlet Oryx, put Russia's main battle tank losses at 2,253 over the past 18 months, as of Monday. However, that includes only visually verified losses, so the true number is likely higher.
On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine had lost 11,408 tanks and other armored combat vehicles in the past year and a half. Kyiv's fighters have lost 5,951 field artillery pieces and mortars, Moscow added in a statement.
Ukraine's General Staff says Russia has lost a total of 5,264 artillery systems.
"Artillery has been hugely important in this war," Davis Ellison, a strategic analyst with the Hague Center for Security Studies, told Newsweek earlier in August.
After more than 11 weeks of counteroffensive efforts, artillery is proving crucial for Kyiv's fighters trying to advance in the annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Ukrainian forces carried out counteroffensive operations on at least two sectors of the front line on Sunday, the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest update.
Kyiv's forces had advanced near the Russian-controlled village of Robotyne, to the south of the Zaporizhzhia city of Orikhiv, the ISW said on Sunday. Ukrainian forces have been pressing down from the north of the settlement, and geolocated footage from across the weekend shows Ukrainian troops have advanced east of Robotyne, the think tank added.
"Our units were successful in the direction of south-eastern Robotyne and south of Mala Tokmachka," a village to the northeast of Robotyne, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine's deputy defense minister, said in a post to Telegram on Monday.
"The enemy tried to regain lost positions east of Robotyne" but did not succeed, Maliar continued.
On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had "repelled eight enemy attacks" around Robotyne with the support of artillery units.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more