Moscow claims 535 Ukrainian troops lost overnight, 680 drones downed

Moscow's Defense Ministry said Monday that Ukrainian forces lost more than 535 soldiers over the previous 24 hours. It credited its Center group of forces with over 335 of those casualties, saying the unit improved its tactical positions. The East group claimed more than 200 additional Ukrainian losses.

In the same update, the ministry said Russian air defenses intercepted two US-made HIMARS rockets and 680 Ukrainian drones. A separate ministry report said 430 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were downed overnight, during the window running from 8:00 pm Moscow time on November 8 to 8:00 am on November 9, over Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Oryol, Pskov, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, the Moscow region and Crimea.

The ministry also said Geran drones struck a 330-kilovolt electrical substation, railway locomotives, a logistics center and a military equipment repair facility it alleges supports Ukrainian military operations.

Kyiv tells a different story about the same night. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 317 airstrikes using drones launched from the Bryansk, Orel, Kursk, Shatalovo, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk regions, along with occupied Donetsk and the Chauda and Gvardiyske areas of occupied Crimea. Ukrainian aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units, drone teams and mobile fire groups shot down or suppressed 271 of them, the Air Force said.

On the ground in Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, head of the region's military administration, said a Russian attack injured six people including one child. In a Telegram post he reported 819 strikes on 52 settlements over the past day, 60 reports of damage to infrastructure, housing and vehicles, 25 air strikes, 601 drones of various types mostly FPV, and 5 MLRS attacks.

Diplomacy ran alongside the strikes. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen about further EU assistance, noting Brussels had previously agreed to activate a special emergency mechanism to fund critical aid. Zelensky said they also discussed Ukraine's upcoming trilateral meeting with Russia and the United States, and that the two sides "coordinated" their positions.