Ukrainian soldiers on an armored infantry vehicle on the road to Avdiivka, on Feb. 14, 2024. (Vlada Liberova/Libkos/Getty Images)
Russia has lost 406,080 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Feb. 21.
This number includes 1,130 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost 6,516 tanks, 12,338 armored fighting vehicles, 12,861 vehicles and fuel tanks, 9,826 artillery systems, 992 multiple launch rocket systems, 678 air defense systems, 338 airplanes, 325 helicopters, 7,560 drones, and 25 warships and boats.
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Ukrainian troops have liberated the villages of Zelenyi Hai, Mykhailivka, and Volodymyrivka, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on Aug. 24.
Although this time Ukraine has not yet announced the number of people released, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) said among them were eight civilians, including Ukrainian journalists Dmytro Khyliuk and Mark Kaliush and former mayor of Kherson, Volodymyr Mykolaienko.
Zelensky’s statement follows a recent report by the Wall Street Journal saying that the U.S. has quietly implemented a review process giving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authority to bar Ukrainian long-range strikes inside Russia with American missiles.
In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, the Kyiv Independent’s Anna Belokur breaks down Monday’s meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which came just a few days after Trump’s Aug. 15 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the defense ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia, as well as the U.K. Minister for Veterans Affairs, are also in Ukraine for Independence Day.
Ukraine shot down a total of 48 drones, while a missile and 24 Shahed attack drones struck 10 locations, the Air Force said, without specifying the targets.
"Yes, we have taken the first steps. But I will say it figuratively, we are at a distance of 10 kilometers and have passed, maybe, the first 200 meters, no more. But in any case, we are moving in the right direction," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
In response to concerns over airspace safety, Russia’s federal aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, temporarily suspended operations at multiple airports in major cities of the Volga and Central regions of European Russia—including Izhevsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Penza, Tambov, and Ulyanovsk.
Washington approved the sale of 3,550 Extended-Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles to Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Aug. 23, citing two unnamed U.S. officials.
Asami Terajima
