Yesterday, October 20th, May Have Seen Heaviest Russian Casualties In Ukraine

Ukrainian forces around Avdiivka have killed so many attacking Russian troops that yesterday may have accounted for Russia's worst day of the war as measured by casualties. 

Though Russian commanders dont seem overly concerned by this - since such attacks continue - it does raise questions about how this is helping create vulnerabilities towards Tokmak and on the east bank of the Dnipro of which Ukraine may take advantage. JL 

Ellie Cook reports in Newsweek:

On Friday, October 20th, Russia lost 1,380 fighters in a single day, marking one of the deadliest days for Moscow's forces in Ukraine in the nearly 20 months of war. Russia is fast approaching 300,000 casualties in Ukraine, after a spike in personnel losses following a costly assault at Avdiivka. Russia is committing its light infantry soldiers to "certain death."(But) Russian commanders are still "committed to offensive operations in the area despite heavy materiel and personnel losses."

Russia is fast approaching 300,000 casualties in Ukraine, according to Kyiv's military, after a spike in personnel losses following a costly assault in the east of the country.

Russia's military has lost around 292,850 soldiers since the outbreak of all-out war in February 2022, Ukraine's General Staff said in an update on Saturday. This includes 790 Russian casualties in the past 24 hours, according to Kyiv.

On Friday, Ukraine said Russia had lost 1,380 fighters in a single day, marking one of the deadliest days for Moscow's forces in Ukraine in the nearly 20 months of bitter war.

Russia does not provide a Ukrainian casualty tally, but figures published by its defense ministry on Friday suggested that Kyiv had lost around 995 fighters along the front lines around Kupiansk, and 940 fighters around the Donetsk city of Lyman over the past week.

 

Ukraine lost more than 2,065 personnel around the Donetsk region, Russia said, adding a further 1,010 soldiers were taken out of action in the south of the annexed region over the past seven days. Ukraine lost another 820 troops in the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions over the same time frame, according to Moscow.

These figures put Russia's tally of Ukrainian losses at 3,895 soldiers across southern and eastern Ukraine between October 14 and October 20. For the same time period, Ukraine's General Staff said Russia had lost 6,140 people.

Newsweek could not independently verify either Russia's or Ukraine's tally. Both Moscow and Kyiv are tight-lipped about their own losses, rarely nodding to their own casualty counts or how much equipment has been destroyed.

 

"It is very difficult to determine casualties in an ongoing conflict since both sides will try to keep the data secret and inflate the number of adversary casualties," Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, U.K., told Newsweek back in May.

Earlier this month, Russia started its first major offensive effort in Ukraine since Kyiv launched its summer counteroffensive back in early June, focusing on the Donetsk town of Avdiivka. Capturing this coke-producing center, which has spent nine years on the frontlines of fighting between Kyiv and Russian and Moscow-backed forces, would be a significant tactical and symbolic win for the Kremlin.

But, although Russia has made some territorial gains around Avdiivka, Western analysts quickly evaluated that Moscow had sustained heavy personnel losses and lost a host of military equipment in the push.

 

Russia is committing its light infantry soldiers to "certain death," Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Tavria group of forces covering Avdiivka, told Newsweek on Tuesday.

However, Ukrainian officials and Western experts had suggested by early this week that the Russian offensive was doomed, and that the number of attacks launched by Russia

 

However, Russian soldiers "launched a renewed offensive push near Avdiivka" on Friday, securing marginal gains, the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War,

 

Russian commanders are still "committed to offensive operations in the area despite heavy materiel and personnel losses," the think tank said.

"Our soldiers steadily hold the defense, causing the enemy numerous losses," Ukraine's General Staff said on Saturday.