Russia suffers record 2,000 losses in one day, says Kyiv

Claims of unprecedented military casualties for Moscow come as Putin’s forces make advances in eastern Ukraine

- ANDY GREGORY

Russia has suffered more than 2,000 casualties in a single day, Ukraine's military has claimed, in what would mark one of the heaviest toll of losses inflicted on Vladimir Putin’s forces at any point in the war so far.

Russia appears to be ramping up its push for territory with the Kremlin potentially anticipating that Donald Trump could seek to follow through on his presidential election campaign claim that he would rapidly end Moscow’s invasion with a peace deal once he re-enters the White House in January.

As Moscow focuses its efforts in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas – made up of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk – and in trying to push Ukraine’s forces from Russia’s Kursk region, war analysts say that Russia is seizing more territory than at any point since the early days of its February 2022 invasion.

But Russian losses have for weeks been consistently among the highest of the war so far, with around 1,500 casualties each day, Ukrainian and Western military chiefs have said.

In their daily update, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed yesterday morning that more than 200 combat clashes had taken place in the past 24 hours, in which Russia had suffered 2,030 losses. Ukraine does not distinguish between those killed and wounded. That figure appears to be broadly in line with Western intelligence estimates, which also put the war’s overall casualty toll at more than 1 million.