Russian Artillery Losses Just Hit All-Time High: Kyiv

The bloody conflict raging across Ukraine after Russia's invasion has ramped up in recent days, and Kyiv is claiming the destruction of huge swathes of its enemy's artillery.

On Friday, Ukraine officials claimed 89 artillery units had been lost by Moscow during the fierce fighting―the most ever taken in a single day since the war began in February 2022.

Artillery units refer to weapons systems that launch munitions far beyond the range of the infantry's firearms, and may include howitzers and rockets.

President Vladimir Putin sparked global outrage when he invaded Ukraine two years ago, confident of success in what he described a "special military operation." Instead, a grim war of attrition has ensued and the U.S. and other allies have provided powerful weapons and financial aid to Ukraine. Russia has made some gains in recent days, but has also suffered heavy human losses and seen the destruction of military equipment and weapons systems.

Figures said to show Russian losses―of its personnel, tanks, aircraft, and more―are released each day by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. The stats are fed into interactive graphs on the department's website, which allows users a broad view of the battles across the entire time scale of the war.

Kyiv also shares a tally of Russian losses each day on social media site X, formerly Twitter, although the figures provided on X are occasionally slightly different to the final statistics uploaded to the website, which is done after a full assessment has been conducted.

On the Ministry of Defense website's graph for Russian losses of artillery systems, the data provided by Kyiv for Friday, May 3, says that there were 89 unit losses. The figures were reported on May 4, the ministry said.

Newsweek has been unable to independently confirm these figures and has reached out to both Russia's Foreign Ministry and Ukraine's Ministry of Defense for comment.

Friday's number dwarfs the counts for other artillery losses during the war. The next highest loss was 66 Russian artillery units lost on February 13 this year. And there was another significant hit last month, when 43 Russian artillery systems were taken out.

The reported 89 losses topped a successful week for Ukrainian military, according to the country's officials, with the previous six days' count bringing the week's total artillery losses for Russia to 264 units.

On Monday, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense shared the latest "losses of the Russian occupiers" on X. The numbers provided are drawn from February 24, 2022, until May 6, this year. The May 6 losses are shown as an additional number in orange, and state that 38 artillery units were lost by Russia that day, according to Kyiv. It brings the total to 12,250 artillery losses throughout the entire war.

The chart was uploaded with a somber quote attributed to the late American war journalist Ernie Pyle: "I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can't be won without."

The chart also shows that 7,380 Russian tanks have been destroyed and 9,683 UAV drones taken out, according to Kyiv, which says it has also "eliminated" 475,300 Russian soldiers during the war.

Ukraine has not given an update of its own losses since President Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that 31,000 of his troops had been killed. However, Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu puts the figure far higher and said this month that Kyiv's troop losses had surpassed 111,000.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to be displeased with Shoigu and recently made a public gesture intended to punish him for his inability to achieve the Kremlin's military goals in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).