Russian personnel and equipment losses continue to mount, according to latest estimates by Kyiv, with one Ukrainian brigade releasing video of what it said was of a vehicle being blown up on the frontline.
The clip was shared by the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade “Rubizh,” which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard, and showed what appeared to be an SUV racing across open ground being hit by a drone.
The footage which shows the vehicle exploding was posted on October 9 but was undated and gave no location.
It appeared to match a longer video also posted on Telegram by the brigade which had a time stamp of May 24 and which cut to other attacks on Russian positions, including drone strikes on military vehicles and troops.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.
It comes as Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Saturday that over the previous day, Russia had lost 1,290 troops, taking the total number of casualties, which include both the dead and wounded, to 667,630 since the start of the war.
There has also been a spike in equipment losses, with 27 armored fighting vehicles and nine tanks being taken out in the previous 24 hours, taking the total number of losses of these pieces of equipment to 17,827 and 8,962 respectively, according to Kyiv.
Pentagon officials have said that Russian losses are accelerating out of proportion with its gains following a summer in which Moscow has continued to take territory in Ukraine’s Donetsk oblast, including a steady advance toward the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
An unnamed senior defense official told reporters that September saw the highest number of Russian casualties since the start of the war, noting that the number of casualties of dead and wounded in the first year of the invasion “exceeded the total of all Soviet losses in any conflict since World War 2 combined.”
An exact tally of casualties is difficult to assess and Russia has not updated its official figure losses since September 2022 when it said just under 6,000 troops had died.
However, the U.K. Defense Ministry said this week Russia is likely to sustaining more than 1,000 casualties per day for the rest of the winter, posing a problem for Moscow to replenish its dwindling forces.
It would be politically unpopular for the Kremlin to force a larger draft but so far Russia has been able to recruit more soldiers mostly through higher pensions and pay, although the increasing losses may challenge that approach.
Also, South Korea’s defense minister said on October 8 that Moscow might also get a boost in troop numbers from North Korea, which might begin deploying regular units to Ukraine.
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