Russia claims Ukraine suffered heavy losses but failed to achieve the goals of the counter-offensive

According to RT, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine has suffered heavy losses in the three months of its summer counteroffensive but has not achieved its goals in any area on the front line.

Russian officials estimated on September 5 that Kiev's forces have lost more than 66,000 soldiers and more than 7,600 pieces of heavy weaponry since launching their counteroffensive in early June.

Mr. Shoigu also affirmed that, despite having to pay a “huge” price in terms of people and equipment, the Ukrainian government still continues its campaign because they really need to show some success to Western sponsors.

The most tense situation remains in the Zaporozhye Region, where Kiev has deployed brigades from its strategic reserve that have been trained with Western support, the Russian Defense Minister said.

Speaking at a government meeting with Russian military leaders, Mr. Shoigu provided details of Russian military units repelling Ukrainian attacks from multiple directions, then described Kiev’s counteroffensive as a failure. The official accused “Ukrainian militants of attacking civilian targets and praising such terrorist attacks as military victories” in an attempt to cover up the reality.

Previously, the Russian Defense Minister also updated the above data at the end of July, and at that time, their estimate was that Ukraine lost about 20,800 soldiers and 2,200 weapons.

For its part, Kiev has not released statistics on military losses, but Ukrainian officials admit that their counteroffensive is progressing less well than expected and is costing the army dearly.