An update on the war in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unannounced visit to the town of Izyum yesterday, which Kyiv’s forces recently seized as part of their counter-offensive in the northeast.

Ukraine’s military has recaptured more than 3,000 square miles of Russian-occupied land in the east and south over the past month, covering an area that’s home to 150,000 people across 300 towns and villages.

📈 Mounting casualties… Here's a tally of Russian losses over the past week, per military analysis site Oryx: 100+ tanks, dozens of armored vehicles, several helicopters, and a handful of drones. Around 5,500 Russian troops have been killed since August 29, Ukrainian officials said this week.

• Overall, the Pentagon estimates up to 20,000 Russian troops have died and 60,000 have been injured since the war began in late February, including at least ten generals who were killed.
• On the Ukrainian side, an estimated 10,000 troops had died and 30,000 had been injured as of mid-June. The UN Human Rights Office earlier this month confirmed 13,917 civilian casualties in Ukraine, though it believes the true number is “considerably higher.”

🇰🇵🇮🇷 Russia finds new foreign partners: Moscow has agreed to buy millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, per newly declassified US intelligence made public last week – a sign Western sanctions have led to “severe supply shortages” for Russia’s military, an inside source told WaPo. Moscow is also “almost certainly” sourcing weaponry from Iran, British intelligence analysts said yesterday.

👀 Looking ahead… Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in Uzbekistan this week, marking their first in-person discussion since Moscow invaded Ukraine; the two leaders are expected to talk about the ongoing war, the Kremlin confirmed yesterday.