Kiev has lost thousands of troops and military hardware during its incursion into Russian territory, the Defense Ministry in Moscow says
Ukraine has lost around 11,400 troops since it launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region last month, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on Monday.
The Russian military has also destroyed over 1,000 units of Ukrainian military hardware, including 89 tanks, 42 infantry fighting vehicles, 74 armored personnel carriers, 635 armored combat vehicles, 371 cars, 85 artillery pieces, and 24 multiple rocket launchers, seven of which were US-made HIMARS systems, the ministry said in a daily update.
In the course of the last 24 hours alone, Ukraine has lost up to 240 servicemen and 13 units of hardware, the ministry estimated.
During the past day, Russian ground forces, supported by artillery and aviation, have repelled three Ukrainian attacks near the settlements of Mikhailovka, Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Desyatoye Octyabrya, the statement read.
Kiev’s troops also tried to advance towards the villages of Malaya Loknya, Korenevo, Kremyanoye and Martynovka, but were pushed back, it added.
“Reconnaissance and search operations in forested areas to track down and destroy enemy sabotage groups, who are attempting to penetrate deeper into Russian territory, are continuing,” the Defense Ministry said.
According to the statement, Russian troops, artillery, and aviation pummeled Ukrainian positions in more than a dozen locations in Kursk Region. Air and missile strikes were also carried out against military concentrations and foreign mercenaries in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, which borders Russia, the ministry stated.
Ukrainian forces invaded Kursk Region on August 6, in the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the start of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. Their advance was quickly halted by the Russian army, but fighting in the region continues, with Kiev’s troops still holding a number of settlements in the border area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that liberating Kursk Region is “a sacred duty” of the Russian military. According to Putin, by targeting the region, Ukraine wanted to make Moscow “nervous” and force it to re-deploy units from other key sectors of the front line.
“Did the enemy succeed? No, it accomplished nothing,” Putin stressed. Russian forces “stabilized the situation and started gradually pushing the enemy from border territories” in Kursk Region, while also increasing the speed of their advance in Donbass and other parts of the front, the president added.
