Russian Army Lost 690 Soldiers In One Day; 4 Tanks, 7 AFVs Destroyed

Russia lost 690 military personnel, four tanks and seven armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) in its invasion of Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to data provided by the Ukrainian military.

About 139,770 Russian military personnel have been "liquidated" since the conflict started nearly a year ago, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its most recent casualty report released Wednesday.

Russia also lost 3,290 tanks and 6,507 AFVs within this period, among other pieces of military equipment.

In its Tuesday casualty report, Ukraine's general staff stated that Russia had lost 139,080 military personnel, 3,286 tanks and 6,500 AFVs up to that point.

The Russian government last provided an official death toll from the war in September 2022, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed fatalities among Russian soldiers at the time numbered 5,937.

Mediazona, with the help of the BBC's Russian service and volunteers, has been able to confirm via publicly available data 14,093 Russian military deaths in Ukraine as of Sunday.

The real death toll is likely much higher, according to the independent Russian media outlet.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has probably sustained more than 100,000 dead or wounded, Norwegian Army Gen. Eirik Kristoffersen, the head of Norway's Armed Forces, suggested in an interview last month.

Russia's Ministry of Defense (MoD) has started to mimic the actions of the Wagner Group paramilitary organization, recruiting convicts and then using them as "cannon fodder" in Ukraine, CNN reported.

"The Russian MoD's decision to recruit prisoners is an indicator that the Kremlin seeks to exploit convicts for future human wave attacks in a similar fashion as the Wagner Group despite convicts' limited combat effectiveness," the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in the United States, said in a statement released Tuesday.

The Wagner Group, which has been taking part in Russian assaults in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province, was reported to have enlisted Russian prisoners to fight in Ukraine with promises of shorter sentences and cash incentives.

However, the mercenary outfit has stopped such recruitment, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group's founder and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced Tuesday.