Since the early days of the war, Russia has controlled large parts of Ukraine’s south – including the entire Kherson region, whose capital of nearly 300,000 serves as a gateway to wider control over the territory.
However, since the end of May, the Ukrainian army has been reporting counter-offensive operations against Moscow, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying last month that his men were “gradually liberating” the region.
On Friday morning, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said the army had demolished two modernized T-72B3 tanks and four units of armored vehicles on the southern front line over the past 24 hours.
It added that 35 soldiers were killed in the same period.
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The reported losses contribute to figures released last week showing that Vladimir Putin’s army has lost some 35,000 troops, 1,500 tanks and 217 plans since the start of the war in late February.
The data, shared by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, which sits under the country’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, is currently the closest representation of Moscow’s state army.
However, information about accidents and hardware losses can not be verified.
According to the update, published last Friday, other losses among Russia’s equipment include 3,645 armored vehicles (APVs), 75 artillery systems, 241 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) and 2,560 vehicles.
The Kremlin only on two occasions gave an official toll of troops killed, the last on March 25, with a figure of 1,351 that experts at the time described as completely too low.
Kiev does not disclose any such statistics for its own powers or hardware.
However, Mr Zelensky said on June 1, his army lost up to 100 soldiers a day, while about 500 were wounded.
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In an interview with the American Newsmax television channel, the president said: “The situation is very difficult: we are losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day if killed in action and something around 500 people if wounded in action. So we keep our defensive perimeter.”
Russia’s losses in Kherson, which was the first major city to capture Putin’s men at the start of the invasion, came amid a significant victory for Kiev as well as Moscow with the withdrawal of Snake Island – or Zmiinyi Island, as it is known in Ukraine.
The small outcrop, just 35 km (22 miles) off the coast of Ukraine, was seized by Moscow on the first day of the conflict.
Now, after more than four months of repeated Ukrainian bombing from the mainland, the Russians have left the strategic Black Sea island.
The Kremlin said the withdrawal was a “gesture of goodwill” to make grain exports possible.
The Ukrainian army, meanwhile, has denounced the allegation as a lie and described scenes of Russians fleeing the island in two speedboats after an avalanche of Ukrainian artillery and missile attacks.