Kursk and Krynky operations were disasters for Ukraine, new casualty figures show (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,709)

Every day, the Ukraine Battlefield update newsletter offers a clear look at how the war is unfolding on the ground. Subscribe for free here to get the full text delivered to your inbox. Confirmed Ukrainian military losses have exceeded 220,000, while the share of missing personnel is rising. Ukraine lost thousands of personnel both during the Kursk region operation and in the battle for Krynky. Following an unofficial pause, Ukraine has resumed attacks on Russian refineries — and with considerable success. Ukraine claims to have hit another two Russian Su-34 aircraft. Russia has suffered too many such losses over the past two months. Videos of the day: a report on a soldier who operates drones with his chin; a welcome for Ukraine’s ombudsman in Oleshky. In Ukraine Battlefield update, we report fairly regularly on the enormous losses suffered by Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian command publishes them daily. This figure is probably inflated, but it shows a trend. And that trend shows that October is already the bloodiest month since the start of the full-scale invasion. Verified figures are also published by the independent Russian outlets Mediazona and the Russian BBC. The problem is that they can only verify these figures retrospectively, while the Russian state is placing ever more obstacles in their way as they seek information about deaths. As Dima Treshchanin wrote, the author of the project, they are currently working on deaths from the summer of 2025. However, we devote less attention to Ukrainian military losses. Unfortunately, these are also high. However, when independent analysts examined its data, they found it credible. Each entry links to a source of information on a Ukrainian website, mostly an obituary, and the analysts did not find many duplicates either. Ukrainian losses are tracked by the UA Losses project. It is an anonymous website and its background is a mystery. Ukrainian authorities describe it as propaganda and have blocked access to its website in Ukraine. UA Losses has updated its data in recent days. To read this story, log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.Read without limitsAlready a subscriber? Login