Russia Suffers Spike in Anti-Aircraft Weapon Losses: Kyiv

Russian forces continue to hemorrhage equipment in their invasion of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s latest figures pointing to a spike in losses of Moscow’s anti-aircraft weapons in recent weeks.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday that Russia had lost three anti-aircraft weapons over the previous day. It takes the total losses of that kind of equipment since the start of the war to 707. Newsweek has been unable to verify this figure as yet.

Accurate casualty counts and equipment losses are notoriously difficult to pin down. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

There were high anti-aircraft weapon losses registered in the first few months of the war, but these numbers have grown only gradually over the last year with a weekly tally usually in single figures.

However, this month, there has been a surge in losses of the systems, with Kyiv’s tally on Friday noting 13 such losses over the previous seven days, including five on March 2. The seven days between March 1 and March 8 saw the highest losses of anti-aircraft systems of the year so far.

This illustrative image from October 28, 2023,shows Ukrainian Air Defence unit, 241st separate brigade removing the cover of a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun during training in the Kyiv region. Russian forces have seen a spike in…

ANATOLII STEPANOV/Getty Images

A tally on the website Oryx, which verifies Russian equipment losses using video or still images, detailed how, since the start of the war, Moscow had lost 48 anti-aircraft guns, 29 of which were destroyed, one damaged and 18 captured, as of Saturday. These included 20 ZU-23-2, anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannons, and 18 Ural-4320 vehicles, which are a platform for the BM-21 “Grad” rocket launcher.

Oryx’s latest tally also says that Russia has lost 25 self-propelled guns, which included 13 2K22 Tunguskas self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and eight ZSU-23-4 “Shilka” lightly armored self-propelled, radar-guided anti-aircraft weapon systems.

Oryx says real Russian equipment losses are likely to be much higher, and its tally also noted Moscow had lost 212 surface-to-air missile systems, including 42 9K35 Strela-10s.

Meanwhile, Russian troop losses have reached 423,160, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Saturday, including 850 over the previous day. Last month, Kyiv said that is daily total of losses included soldiers who were both dead and injured.

Other estimates are lower, although the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on February that around 350,000 Russian fighters have been killed or wounded.

The defense ministry in Moscow said on Saturday that Russia had shot down Ukrainian 47 drones overnight, adding that Kyiv launched attacks that lasted over an hour over the Belgorod, Kursk, Volgograd and Rostov oblasts. Again, Newsweek has been unable to verify these figures.

Telegram channels reported that locals in Taganrog in Rostov region heard five explosions overnight, which were described by the oblast’s Governor Vasily Golubev as “massive.”

Russian authorities continue to report an increasing number of strikes targeting these regions, while Moscow’s forces have stepped up their drone attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in recent months.