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Russia has lost more than 122,000 military personnel in its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military announced as it recorded 690 more Russian casualties in one day.
A total of 122,170 Russian combat losses have been recorded since the conflict began in February last year, according to the latest casualty report released Tuesday by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The figure was at 121,480 in a report from the previous day.
In addition to personnel, Russia has also lost 3,152 tanks, 6,284 armored fighting vehicles and 2,148 artillery systems, among other pieces of military equipment, the updated data showed.
Russia last provided an official death toll from the war in September 2022 when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu revealed that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine up to that point.
Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, with the help of the BBC’s Russian service and volunteers, said that it has been able to confirm 11,662 Russian military casualties in Ukraine as of Jan. 17 using publicly available data.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has lost up to 13,000 of its soldiers, Ukrainian officials said, according to reports from early December 2022.
Senior U.S. officials are now advising Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive against Russian forces until the latest deliveries of American weaponry have been put in place and training has been provided, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed senior official of President Joe Biden‘s administration.
Biden approved a $2.5 billion weapons package for Ukraine this week, which included 59 M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 90 Stryker armored personnel carriers, among other equipment.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also agreed to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 main battle tanks, German media outlet Der Spiegel first reported.
Twelve countries have agreed to supply Ukraine with around 100 of the German-made vehicles should Germany give its consent for re-export, a senior Ukrainian official told ABC News on condition of anonymity.
“Ukraine is going to get all the help they need,” Biden told reporters at the White House when asked if he supports Poland’s intention to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
The U.S. is also poised to send about 30 of its own M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Ukraine’s military needs about 300 tanks to defeat Russia, General Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said in an interview with the Economist last month.
While the White House declined to comment on the deliberations or say when the first of the vehicles might be delivered, some officials said it might take a year, according to WSJ.
Newly appointed German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told German television last week that German and U.S. tanks do not need to be provided at the same time, leaving an opening for the Biden administration to send Abrams at a later point.
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