US Research Center Estimates 2 Million Russian and Ukrainian Casualties

Russia launched its largest air strike on Kyiv since the war began in February 2022 on the night of Wednesday-Thursday, at a time when the American Research Center reported that “the total casualties among Russian and Ukrainian forces have exceeded two million.”

Following the strikes that caused severe damage to residential buildings and resulted in at least 17 deaths, an official from the European Union’s foreign policy arm proposed imposing new sanctions on Moscow, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested permission from the United States to manufacture Patriot air defense missiles.

The attack came after the Ukrainian Air Force warned of approaching ballistic missiles near the capital, and followed Zelenskyy’s cancellation of his visit to Dublin on Wednesday after receiving intelligence reports indicating that Russia was preparing to launch an imminent strike.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said this was “the largest attack launched by the enemy on the capital” since the start of the war.

Kyiv has requested additional support from its allies to strengthen its air defenses. Zelenskyy wrote on his Facebook page, “We are counting heavily on a US decision regarding Patriot licenses and other forms of cooperation. These are the measures that can stop this war and prevent such attacks.”

Mykola Kulashnyk, governor of Kyiv Oblast, stated via Telegram that the attack caused fires and damaged buildings across the region, noting that it was carried out using “drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.”

In Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated in a post on the Telegram app that its “intensive attack,” conducted using long-range, high-precision weapons launched from air, land, and sea, along with drones, targeted military facilities and energy infrastructure, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations.

It added that the attack was in response to Ukrainian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure within Russia. It also noted that its forces shot down 327 drones during the night of Wednesday-Thursday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, responding to a question about the European Union’s announcement, said, “Russia will continue to increase pressure on the Kyiv regime to achieve the objectives we have set.”

Meanwhile, Poland, a member of both NATO and the European Union, briefly deployed fighter jets yesterday as a precautionary measure.

The Finnish Armed Forces announced on the X platform that they had temporarily imposed an air exclusion zone over the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland before lifting it later.

It was estimated that “between 400,000 and 450,000 Russians have been killed since Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine, out of a total of 1.4 million casualties (killed, wounded, and missing) among Russian forces.”

The center added that during the same period, Ukrainian forces suffered between 125,000 and 150,000 killed, in addition to between 525,000 and 625,000 wounded.