Putin’s deadliest day as ‘1,200 troops are killed’ in just 24hrs after Ukraine given green light to blitz inside Russia
A US-made Himars missile appears in video to have blasted key military targets inside Russia for the first time
VLADIMIR Putin has lost more than 1,200 troops in just 24 hours, marking Russia’s deadliest day in its meatgrinder war with Ukraine.
The surge in casualties comes after Western nations – including the US – gave Ukraine the green light to strike Russia with their weapons.
Ukrainian general staff claimed on Monday that the Russian military suffered 1,270 casualties in the past 24 hours.
Kyiv also destroyed 14 Russian tanks, 22 armoured personnel carriers, and 47 artillery pieces, they said.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed Russia lost about 1,200 troops per day in May and said the total number of troops lost since the start of the bloody war had likely surpassed 500,000.
Ukraine’s Defence Ministry quoted philosopher Socrates in a post shared to X this morning, writing: “When you want success as badly as you want the air, then you will get it.
“There is no other secret of success.”
The defence ministry shared a tally of Russian combat losses which claimed 511,130 people had been “eliminated” throughout the war.
If Ukraine’s figures are correct, the past 24 hours have been the deadliest for Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Kyiv has reported Russian casualty figures of more than 1,000 per day since Moscow launched a new offensive in Kharkiv on May 10.
Russian forces are thought to have captured 13 settlements and 116 square miles of land in the area.
Ukraine claims to have stabilised the new frontlines, although the fighting has drawn its resources away from other areas and is said to have led to small Russian advances along the rest of the frontline.
The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that it had captured a village and three other settlements in the Donetsk region, after it claimed on Friday to have made advances “in all tactical directions”.
Last week, as Russia continued its attack on Kharkiv and looked to seize more Ukrainian territory, US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use US-made weapons to strike inside Russia.
One source said the move would allow Ukraine to “hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them”, while another said the move granted Ukraine the “flexibility” to defend itself.
American-made Himars missiles were subsequently used in strikes on Russian troops in Belgorod, Russian sources claimed yesterday.
Putin has threatened all-out war if Ukraine uses Western weapons to hit Russia and singled out Britain, warning that “countries with small territory and dense populations” should be careful.
The UK has provided Ukraine with both lethal and non-lethal weapons.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly asked his country’s allies for permission to use their weapons on Russian soil.
Last month, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said it was up to Ukraine to decide how to use British weapons and insisted it had the right to strike targets on Russian territory.
Russia is known to use Iranian, North Korean and Chinese weapons to attack Ukraine – but Putin has said Kyiv responding with rockets from allies risked a “global conflict”.
