Russia’s military casualties top 1 million in 3-year-old war: Ukraine

Kyiv: The number of Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine has topped 1 million, military officials in Kyiv said Thursday, describing the huge price that Moscow has paid for its 3-year-old invasion.

The claim by the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces, which came on a holiday celebrating Russia’s sovereignty, is in line with Western intelligence estimates. President Vladimir Putin marked Russia Day by hosting a Kremlin meeting with soldiers decorated for their service in Ukraine, but neither he nor any other officials commented on the Ukrainian claim.

The UK Defence Ministry also said in a statement posted Thursday on X that Russia has suffered over 1 million casualties, including roughly 250,000 killed since it launched the full-scale invasion on Feb 24, 2022.

On June 3, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said Russia likely would hit the mark of 1 million casualties this summer in what it called “a stunning and grisly milestone”.

Russia last reported its military casualties early in the war when it acknowledged that about 6,000 soldiers had been killed. Earlier this year, the General Staff of the Russian armed forces claimed that Ukrainian military losses had topped 1 million. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last spoke of Ukrainian military losses, when he said in an interview that 45,100 troops had been killed and about 390,000 injured.

The casualty estimates came as Russian forces pummelled Ukraine with drones and other weapons, killing three people and injuring scores of others despite international pressure to accept a ceasefire.