He Ukrainian General Staff today put the number of Russian casualties in the last 24 hours along the front at 1,740, a figure without recent precedents that is due to the new cross-border offensive launched by Russia against the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv.
The number of enemy casualties offered today by Ukraine includes dead and wounded Russian soldiers and is much higher than those that kyiv had been reporting in recent weeks and months, when this count was between 800 and 1,300 casualties almost daily.
Russia launched a cross-border attack on the northern Kharkiv border region on Fridaymanaging to breach the Ukrainian defenses that protected the border with Russia to take the fighting to Ukrainian territory.
kyiv has acknowledged that fighting is taking place in towns in two separate areas of the Kharkiv border area.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff itself, Russia employs “up to five battalions” in its assault on the border town of Vovchansk. The General Staff has highlighted the high number of Russian casualties. “In this direction alone the Russian invaders have lost more than 100 occupants in one day,” reads the Ukrainian military report on Monday.
Zelensky's warning
The Russian cross-border offensive in the north of the Ukrainian Kharkiv region aims objective to force Ukrainian troops to disperse and neglect other fronts, as stated in his speech to the nation last night by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who recognized “intense fighting” on the Ukrainian side of the border.
“The idea behind these attacks in the Kharkiv region is disperse and laminate our forces and undermine the morale” of Ukrainians, Zelensky said, which warned that the situation in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russia concentrated its greatest efforts until last Friday, “is no less intense” than in Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian head of state reported “intense defensive battles in large parts” of Ukraine's border area with Russia in the northeastern region of Kharkiv. “There are towns that have gone from gray zones to combat zones, and the occupier is trying to establish positions in some of them or simply use them to advance further,” Zelensky added.
Ukrainian media and unofficial sources such as the Ukrainian war analysis group DeepState have reported the seizure by Russia of several towns in two areas separated by dozens of kilometers in the part of the Kharkiv region that is attached to Russia.
The Ukrainian General Staff has recognized Russian “tactical” progress along the border. For its assault on Vovchansk alone, Russia would have used “up to five battalions,” according to the Ukrainian General Staff, which highlights the high number of casualties that the Russian Army is suffering in these actions.
The Ukrainian leader noted that the situation “It is “extremely difficult” on the outskirts of Vovchansk,” the Ukrainian municipality in the Kharkiv border area towards which Russia has launched its main attacks since Friday. “The city is under constant Russian fire, and our army is carrying out counterattacks while helping residents,” he also said.