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Moscow concealing population data to hide Russian military’s high personnel loss rates, says ISW
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At least three children were among 20 people wounded as a result of a Russian drone attack on Ukraine‘s second-largest city of Kharkiv overnight, which damaged apartments and a kindergarten.
Russia and Ukraine struck each other with hundreds of drones over the weekend, forcing the shutdown of airports in Moscow and throwing Russian air travel in disarray.
Russia said its air defences shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the nighttime attacks, and another 39 on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Russia‘s authorities have stopped reporting on the number of deaths nationwide in an apparent bid to conceal losses from Vladimir Putin‘s war in Ukraine.
The Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) did not report demographic data in its January to May 2025 “socioeconomic situation in Russia” report, said Meduza, a Russian-language news outlet operating from Latvia.
The Institute for the Study of War said withholding death figures was “an attempt to obfuscate Russia’s ongoing demographic problems” and “likely also aims to obscure the Russian military’s high personnel loss rates”.
Ukraine’s air force has reported 105 Russian drones and missiles attacked the country overnight in the north, east and south of the country.
The military was able to down 75 drones via fire weapons and electronic warfare.
Ukraine has inked deals with European allies and a leading US defence company to step up drone production, ensuring Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” more this year, the war-time country’s president announced.
Volodymyr Zelensky did not name the US business in his nightly video address to Ukrainians, but said Ukraine and Denmark have also agreed to co-produce drones and other weapons on Danish soil.
“With Denmark – new agreements on coproduction. The Danish model of investing in Ukraine’s own DIB has proven its effectiveness. Joint work on the territory of Denmark, and soon in other key partner countries, is allowing us to scale up even more. This applies to drones and many other types of urgently needed weapons,” he said on Saturday night.
He added: “As per drones, we’ve also reached an agreement with one of the leading American companies to significantly increase our joint efforts.”
Ukraine has previously used homemade drones to hit high-value military targets deep inside Russia, demonstrating its capabilities and denting Moscow’s confidence.
Last month, Kyiv said it destroyed more than 40 Russian planes stationed at several airfields deep inside Russia in a surprise attack.
Outmanned and outgunned, Ukraine’s army has also turned to drones to compensate for its troop shortage and shore up its defences.
While Russia has ramped up offensives this summer on two fronts in Ukraine, analysts say the front isn’t about to collapse.
Russian air defence units shot down eight Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow late yesterday, from a total of 90 overnight over Russian territory, the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula, the defence ministry said.
Most came down over regions near Ukraine, but three were also destroyed over the Leningrad area, home to Russia’s second-largest city of St Petersburg, the ministry said this morning.
Russia’s defence ministry reports only the numbers of drones destroyed, not the numbers launched by Ukraine. It also does not report possible damage, but regional governors said the attacks caused no substantial damage.
Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia reported temporary airport closures in the two cities and other regional centres, as well as delays to dozens of flights.
Russian authorities have stopped reporting on the number of deaths in Russia to conceal its losses from the war in Ukraine, according to a report.
Meduza, Russia’s opposition outlet, said that the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) did not report demographic data in its January to May 2025 “socioeconomic situation in Russia” report.
Additionally, electoral statistics researcher Dmitry Kobak said late last month that “Rosstat refused to fulfill his request for data pertaining to 2024 male excess mortality and monthly deaths by date of death”, said The Institute for the Study of War.
“ISW previously assessed that Rosstat is concealing population data in an attempt to obfuscate Russia’s ongoing demographic problems, and the omission of demographic data in Rosstat’s reports likely also aims to obscure the Russian military’s high personnel loss rates,” the think tank said in its latest update.
At least three children were among 20 people wounded as a result of a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv overnight that damaged apartments and a kindergarten, Ukrainian authorities said this morning.
A fire broke out in a multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv as a result of the attack, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the broader Kharkiv region of which the city of Kharkiv is the administrative centre, said that most of the injuries occurred in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district.
Emergency services were working at the site, Mr Sinehubov said.
Kharkiv, which lies in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since the start of the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
Two Dutch intelligence agencies said on Friday that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin.
The Netherlands’ military intelligence and the security service, together with the German intelligence service, found that the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Russian military had become “standardized and commonplace” in Ukraine.
According to the findings, the Russian military uses chloropicrin and riot control agent CS against sheltering Ukrainian soldiers, who are then forced out into the open and shot.
European leaders have redoubled their efforts to prise Donald Trump away from Russia by warning that the US president is being “mocked” by Vladimir Putin, alleging that Moscow is using chemical weapons in Ukraine and demanding that the US restore weapons supplies to Kyiv.
The move came after Ukraine said it had endured the biggest overnight air attack of the entire war, with swarms of 500 drones and missiles intended to overwhelm already stretched air defences.
Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, called for the US to end its suspension of air defence missiles and other weapons – most of which are on standby for delivery to Poland –and derided Trump’s fruitless efforts to secure a ceasefire. “Mr Trump, Putin is mocking your peace efforts,” said the Oxford-educated Sikorski.
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Three children among 27 wounded in Russian drone strike on Kharkiv – The Independent
