Ukrainian forces have destroyed 19 Russian tanks, two Su-25 fighter jets and a Mi-8 helicopter in the past 24 hours, according to the latest information from the country’s military.
On Friday, the Ukrainian Air Force carried out 24 airstrikes on Russian targets where Moscow troops had collected weapons and military equipment, including their air defense systems, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced.
“In the past day, units of the Defense Forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of the settlements of Vodyane, Kamianka and Nevelske of the Donetsk region,” she wrote on Facebook on Saturday, adding that “our air defense units shot down two Su-25 fighter jets and a Mi-8 helicopter.”
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Armed Forces report that in the last 24 hours, Russia has launched “four rocket and up to 25 airstrikes” and “more than 70 attacks from rocket salvo systems”. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Ukraine, while releasing its daily assessment of Russian casualties, said it had also destroyed five drones, nine artillery systems and 23 armored personnel carriers in the past 24 hours.
In the eight months since the Russian invasion began on February 24, Ukraine claims Russia has lost 70,250 troops, 2,659 tanks and 273 helicopters, among other assets.
Those figures are considered by experts to be likely inflated, but data from independent think tanks and Western intelligence confirms that Russia has suffered significant casualties in Ukraine.
Oryx, a website that documents equipment losses, says it has photo and video evidence of 1,412 Russian tanks destroyed, damaged or captured in Ukraine since February 24, in addition to 54 Russian helicopters lost in the country are.
Oryx said 23 of those helicopters were Ka-52s, the same type of attack helicopters that Britain’s MoD recently said were responsible for half of Moscow’s helicopter losses in Ukraine.
Forbes journalist David Ax said that Russia is currently losing 10 tanks a day, twice the losses seven weeks ago when Ukrainian forces launched two counter-offensives in southern and eastern Ukraine, and significantly more than Ukraine’s estimated only loses two a day.
Russia’s casualties are widely attributed to the low morale that has reportedly affected its troops, said to have been made worse by the arrival of unprepared, ill-equipped reservists who joined the army with little training following Putin’s partial mobilization.
On Friday, Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the end of the military operation.
According to the Russian defense minister, Moscow has already successfully mobilized 300,000 men, 82,000 of whom have already been deployed in Ukraine – 41,000 of them in combat units, Putin said – and 218,000 of them are currently training at Russian training grounds.
The Russian President acknowledged that the newly mobilized reservists had logistical and supply problems.
Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed 19 Russian tanks, two jets and a helicopter in the past 24 hours. In this photo, members of Ukraine’s artillery unit prepare to fire on Kherson on October 28, 2022 outside the Kherson region amid Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images
But according to the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), he then “falsely claimed that these problems were only in the ‘initial phase’ of mobilization and that these problems are now resolved”.
Putin concluded that the country must “draw the necessary conclusions” from the problems with the reservists in Ukraine and modernize “the entire system of military registration and enlistment offices” and “reconsider and adjust the structure of all components of the armed forces” , including the ground forces.”
The mobilization of 300,000 reservists, writes the ISW, will “probably not have a decisive impact on Russian combat effectiveness.”
The 41,000 “poorly trained” reservists mentioned by Putin who were already stationed in combat units in Ukraine “may have temporarily stiffened Russian defense lines,” but “these reservists have not yet experienced the full weight of a large and prepared Ukrainian counteroffensive push.” The deployment did not significantly increase Russian combat effectiveness,” said the ISW.
The think tank added that deploying an additional 110,000 mobilized men in combat units “is unlikely to change the course of the war.”