Weekly Russia-Ukraine war summary: Battles near Kursk border, “motocross season” near Pokrovsk, drone strikes directed from Moscow high-rise

Russia’s MoD, in turn, reported the downing of 413 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Russian territory and the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Notably, on April 16-17, Ukrainian forces targeted the permanent base of Russia’s 112th Missile Brigade (accused in the Sumy strike), located in the town of Shuya in the Ivanovo Region.

According to data put together by volunteers at the open source intelligence (OSINT) project Conflict Intelligence Team (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), at least 91 civilians were killed and 422 injured due to shelling of civilian infrastructure on both sides of the front between 8:00 p.m. on April 10 and 8:00 p.m. on April 17.

Losses

The Ukrainian Air Force has lost its second F-16 fighter jet (the first was lost in August 2024). Both Russian and Ukrainian sources (1, 2) write that the aircraft was downed by Russian air defense systems — a claim also echoed by Russia’s MoD.

BBC News Russian and the independent outlet Mediazona, together with a team of volunteers, have updated their count of Russian military fatalities based on open-source obituaries and reports. The list of verified names now includes 103,275 Russian servicemen. The publications noted that over the past 2.5 months — during which Russia has been engaged in negotiations with the U.S. over a possible peace settlement — the frequency of published obituaries (which is not directly equivalent to confirmed deaths) has actually increased.

Analyst Janis Kluge estimates that Russia is recruiting 1,000 contract soldiers per day. He attributes these high numbers to substantial one-time sign-on bonuses and widespread public belief that the war may soon end. Kluge’s conclusion is based on publicly available data regarding contract signing payments across 37 Russian regions.

Weapons and military vehicles

European Union member states have allocated €23 billion in aid to Ukraine for this year — 15% more than in 2024. As for Russia, a report by the UK-based Open Source Centre revealed that North Korea is now supplying up to half of the Russian Armed Forces’ artillery munitions needs.

Meanwhile, the Russian domestic defense industry continues to send tanks equipped with hopelessly outdated electronic warfare systems to the front. Russia’s front-line tinkerers have responded by engineering a range of improvised assault vehicles (1, 2, 3), including one constructed on the chassis of the Soviet-era Oka compact car.