Ukraine Claims Record Daily Russian Casualties as First Peace Talks Since February End
Kyiv says Russian losses in November could surpass October's record as the first peace talks since February yielded a prisoner exchange but little sign of Russian compromise.
By Lorenzo Evans ·
Ukraine's military said this week that Russian casualties could set a new monthly record in November, even as Ukrainian, Russian and American officials held their first peace talks since February.
Kyiv said it inflicted more than 26,000 Russian casualties, meaning soldiers killed or seriously wounded, in the first 10 days of the month, a pace that would surpass October's 54,400. It also claimed a daily record of 2,980 Russian troops killed or wounded on November 9, the fourth such record reported this year. The claims could not be independently verified.
The losses have not moved Russia closer to seizing the remaining quarter of the eastern Donbas region. Independent assessments indicate Moscow has gained a net 117 square kilometres (45 square miles) this year; Russia's defence ministry claims 3,600 square kilometres (1,400 square miles), a figure President Vladimir Putin has repeated. Separately, pro-Ukrainian hackers from Belarus said records they accessed from Russia's statistics service Rosstat show an official tally of 450,000 Russian fatalities since 2022.
Russia was defiant at the talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. Vladimir Medinsky, the presidential aide who led Moscow's delegation, said he would be satisfied 'only when we win and sign a peace agreement on our terms'. Russia has demanded territory Ukraine refuses to surrender and wants NATO out of the former Soviet bloc countries that joined it since 1997. Medinsky called for 'a new, comprehensive, and just security system in Europe', saying the existing order 'is functioning very poorly'.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Danish parliament that Moscow's talk of a security architecture really means it wants 'to freely interfere in the affairs of other countries, and to use force whenever they want'. Germany, France and the United Kingdom were excluded from the sessions. Kyiv wants an ironclad guarantee of military intervention like NATO's Article 5, but Zelenskyy said the Trump administration offered only 'something similar to NATO'. Putin later received the US team in Saint Petersburg and repeated that European peacekeepers would be 'absolutely unacceptable'.
Zelenskyy attributed Moscow's stance to a distorted picture of the battlefield. 'Putin lives in a different reality,' he told journalists in Copenhagen on November 11, saying Russian officers claimed to hold half of the Donbas territory still under Ukrainian control. Abu Dhabi did produce one outcome: an exchange of at least 1,000 and possibly 1,500 prisoners each, and Zelenskyy said de-escalation steps were discussed.
In the run-up to the talks, Russia pounded Ukrainian cities. 'For 10 days and nights, Ukraine faced constant alarms,' the General Staff said, counting 3,519 drones launched and 3,068 intercepted. On the night of November 7, Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles, some reportedly made in North Korea, at energy infrastructure, and Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi asked European allies for generators, mobile shelters and buses. On November 12, Ukraine reported renewed restrictions on Starlink, which Zelenskyy said 'directly impacts our ability to intercept Russian kamikaze drones'.
Ukraine kept up its own strikes inside Russia, hitting missile launchers and factories. Targets this week included the Proton-Electrotex conglomerate, which makes missile components, the Morozov rocket fuel plant near Saint Petersburg, a chemical plant in Tver, a repair plant servicing Russia's rare A-50 early warning aircraft, and the Naro-Forminsk cruiser, which launches Kalibr and Onyx missiles. 'We are acting asymmetrically,' Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said, adding that 12 ballistic missile launch sites had been struck. Zelenskyy renewed his call for German Taurus missiles.
Kyiv has also struck Russia's five biggest refineries since late October, and sources told Reuters at least 30 percent of Russian refining capacity has been destroyed; Russian military reporters said friendly fire downed three helicopters defending the Ust-Luga refinery. The strikes aim to cut petroleum export revenue. Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service said Moscow is projecting a 2026 deficit of $63bn to $67bn, double its intended figure, and Russian media reported layoffs at the Duma and the Federation Council.
