Russia has suffered its deadliest day of the war in Ukraine so far, with 1,770 soldiers killed or wounded in just 24 hours, according to figures released by kyiv.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have lost 710,660 soldiers since the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia almost three years ago, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said today.
Despite heavy losses, Moscow presses ahead with its ‘meat attacks’ and continues to advance at its fastest pace since 2022, with the head of Ukraine’s armed forces admitting this month that it is currently facing ‘one of the most powerful Russians’ since the war broke out.
Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has stalled, and Moscow has reportedly massed a force of 50,000 troops with the goal of recapturing territory seized from it three months ago.
kyiv said last week that its forces had clashed with some of the roughly 11,000 North Korean troops sent. to the region to support Moscow, and some experts say their deployment could be due in part to heavy Russian losses.
A video still allegedly shows North Korean troops in Russia equipped with military equipment, preparing to be sent to fight Ukraine.
In a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday, November 4, 2024, Russian soldiers record video congratulations at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
A Russian soldier fires from a howitzer towards a Ukrainian position in the Russian-Ukrainian border area in the Kursk region.
Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time of the August raid on Kursk that the seizure of Russian territory could serve as a bargaining chip with Moscow.
But, burdened by personnel shortages, Ukrainian forces have lost some of the ground they captured in the August raid and have continued to lose large swathes of their own territory.
The record number of daily Russian losses, which exceeds the previous high of 1,730 in one day in May, is largely in line with estimates from Western countries.
The number of Russian soldiers killed and wounded averaged 1,500 “every day,” UK Chief of the Defense Staff Tony Radakin told the BBC on Sunday.
Russia is making enormous sacrifices to secure “small increments of land,” Radakin said, but added that it continues to make “tactical and territorial gains” and is “putting pressure on Ukraine.”
Last weekend saw the largest drone attacks by Russia and Ukraine since the war began, with bombing strikes hitting large areas of each country and hundreds of drones shot down, including in the Moscow region.
The attacks have intensified amid expectations that US President-elect Donald Trump will pressure both sides to end the conflict.
A rescuer works at the site of a Russian overnight attack in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, early Monday morning.
Rescuers work to extinguish a house fire following a drone attack in the village of Stanovoye, Moscow Region, on November 10.
Throughout his campaign he repeatedly said he could end the war “in a day,” without saying how.
Last night it was reported that Trump spoke to Putin in recent days and advised him not to escalate the war.
Putin has since denied the reports, adding that he still has no concrete plans to call him.
Trump and his supporters have been roundly critical of the magnitude of US military and financial support for kyiv, previously calling Zelensky “the biggest salesman on Earth.”
The United States has provided approximately $106 billion in aid directly to the kyiv government, a figure that includes military and financial aid as well as humanitarian support, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
After having what he said was an “excellent” call with Trump on Wednesday night, Zelensky the next day said he was convinced that a quick end to the war would mean kyiv would accept big concessions.