Ukraine Claims Record 2,980 Russian Casualties in One Day
Ukraine says Russia suffered 26,000 casualties—killed or seriously wounded—in the first 10 days of November, potentially making the month the deadliest for Russian forces since the full-scale invasion began. Kyiv reported a record 2,980 Russian soldiers killed or wounded on November 9, the fourth such daily record this year. Ukraine’s claims could not be independently verified, while a group of pro-Ukrainian Belarusian hackers said they had found a Russian state statistical record listing 450,000 fatalities since 2022.
The reported losses came as Russia made little measurable progress on the battlefield. Independent assessments put Russia’s net territorial gain for the year at just 117sq km (45sq miles), despite Moscow’s stated objective of capturing the remaining quarter of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia’s defence ministry, however, claimed it had seized 3,600sq km (1,400sq miles), and Vladimir Putin repeated that figure.
The contrasting assessments shaped the first peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States since February, held in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11. Russia continued to demand territory Ukraine rejects surrendering, opposition to NATO’s post-1997 expansion and the exclusion of European peacekeepers from any postwar settlement. Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow would accept peace only on its own terms. Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued that Russia’s claims reflected an inaccurate view of the battlefield and warned that discussions about Europe’s security order should follow, not precede, an agreement to end the war. The talks nevertheless produced plans for a new prisoner exchange involving at least 1,000, and possibly 1,500, prisoners on each side.
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