Jul 29, 2024

Russia’s reported daily losses of artillery systems on the battlefields of Ukraine have reached their highest point in three months, according to figures published by Ukraine’s armed forces.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that Russia had lost 74 artillery systems in the previous 24 hours. Kyiv’s figures indicate that Moscow has lost more than 16,000 artillery systems since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In early May, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russian troops had lost 89 artillery systems in a single day, marking the highest reported Russian artillery losses in a single day since February 2022.

Newsweek could not independently verify Ukraine’s figures and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Both Russia and Ukraine lean heavily on artillery, though the rapidly evolving drone race has helped to prop up strikes on one another’s vital assets. Artillery systems used by Ukraine include High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, also known as HIMARS, and different types of howitzers.

Artillery is typically described as responsible for a large percentage of casualties along the hundreds of miles of front lines snaking through eastern and southern Ukraine.

In December, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation and drone tsar, told Newsweek that first-person-view drones were becoming more useful to Ukraine’s frontline fighters than artillery.

While artillery systems have featured high on Kyiv’s wish list of supplies from its Western backers, the priority in the first part of this year has been providing the ammunition to keep the systems operational and useful. Earlier this year, Ukraine was firing an estimated fifth of the number of artillery rounds Russia was able to leverage against Ukrainian troops.

U.S. military aid announced earlier in July included fresh deliveries of artillery munitions to meet Ukraine’s “most urgent needs.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday that it had destroyed 12,535 Ukrainian field artillery systems and mortars. Newsweek could not independently verify this tally.

Earlier this month, The Economist reported that Russia’s constant firing of artillery systems meant the barrels of the howitzers deployed in the hot spots of battle needed replacing within a matter of months. Moscow has turned to taking barrels from old, towed artillery pieces to fix onto self-propelled howitzers for the battlefield, the outlet added.

Kyiv said at the start of July that Russia had lost a record number of artillery systems in June, losing 1,415 systems in one month.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-artillery-losses-ukraine-1931454