Ukraine Army Eliminates 330 Russian Soldiers In One Day

Residents near the town of Buzova, west of Kyiv, examine the wreckage of a Russian tank on April 10, 2020 AFP / Sergei SUPINSKY

KEY POINTS

Around 330 Russian soldiers were killed in the conflict in Ukraine between Saturday and Sunday
Russia has suffered 84,210 combat losses among its personnel since it invaded Ukraine
Losses also included 2,886 tanks and 278 aircraft, among other pieces of military equipment

Russia lost 330 soldiers in Ukraine over the course of a single day this weekend, according to data provided by the Ukrainian military.

Russia suffered 84,210 combat losses among its personnel between the start of the invasion of Ukraine in late February and Sunday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its most recent casualty report.

In addition, Russia also lost 2,886 tanks, 5,817 armored fighting vehicles, 278 aircraft and 261 helicopters, among other pieces of military equipment, within the same period.

The Ukrainian military said in a previous casualty report released Saturday that Russia had lost 83,880 personnel.

Russia last provided a death toll from the invasion of Ukraine in September when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that at least 5,937 Russian soldiers have died in the conflict at the time.

Gen. Mark Milley, the most senior military officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, claimed earlier this month that the number of Russian casualties in the conflict was already "well over" 100,000.

Ukraine has "probably" suffered a similar number of losses, according to Milley.

"There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering," he said at The Economic Club of New York, according to the Associated Press.

Pro-Russian forces fighting in occupied areas of Ukraine also reportedly sustained heavy casualties.

Almost all of the forces initially deployed by the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), a Russian-backed separatist state in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, appeared to have been killed or wounded, Forbes reported.

The DPR army started the war with around 20,000 men, but it had 19,540 casualties as of November, split into 3,746 killed in action and 15,794 wounded in action, according to officials from the separatist state.

A unit becomes incapable of major combat after losing 31% of its strength, the U.S. Army's Field Manual 101-5-1 states.

DPR fighters were equipped with outdated weapons and gear, such as World War II-era Mosin-Nagant rifles and T-62 tanks that first entered service in 1961.

Despite being underequipped, the DPR's forces were sent on dangerous missions without adequate support.

Russia's leaders seemed to view the DPR's soldiers as cannon fodder.

"They don't count us, they leave us," one drunk DPR fighter said in a video that went viral in August.