Russia’s Ukraine death toll just hit a ‘crazy’ new milestone | World | News

Fresh figures reveal the devastating toll of Russia’s four-year conflict in Ukraine, with tens of thousands of Moscow’s troops perishing each month.

Roughly one-fifth of Ukraine remains under Russian control, four years since Russia initiated a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Yet as the front lines have largely solidified, Russia’s territorial advances have slowed dramatically after capturing significant swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine during the conflict’s opening months—establishing a land bridge to Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

According to assessments, since early 2023, it has only reclaimed approximately 1.3% of Ukrainian territory through military action.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte declared that Russia has endured “crazy losses” in Ukraine, with around 65,000 troops killed or wounded over the previous two months.

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies calculated that Russian forces have lost an average of more than 26,000 personnel monthly, encompassing those killed, wounded, and missing. A minimum of 1.2 million casualties are projected since 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov challenged the figures.

“I don’t think such reports can or should be considered reliable information,” he said. “It is the Defence Ministry that is authorised to provide information on any losses during the Special Military Operation.”

Official casualty figures have not yet been disclosed by either Moscow or Kyiv.

Verifying battlefield losses has proved difficult due to the intensity of the four-year conflict.

Russia’s tactic of launching waves of small infantry assaults against Ukrainian lines represents a costly approach, with military experts warning that attackers typically sustain heavier losses in combat.

At the outset of Russia’s invasion, swift columns of infantry and armour swept across much of Ukraine, threatening both Kyiv, the nation’s capital, and Kharkiv, its second-largest city.

They were expelled from northern Ukraine in spring 2022, and that autumn, substantial areas of northeastern and southern Ukraine were reclaimed by successful Ukrainian counteroffensives.

The nature of fighting along the 746-mile front line has undergone a dramatic transformation since 2023. Large-scale armoured operations have been supplanted by inexpensive drones that continuously monitor the contact line, allowing the overstretched Ukrainian defences to repel a numerically superior Russian force.

Presently, territorial control changes hands only in modest parcels of land, seized by small groups of attackers who often advance on foot or motorcycle before consolidating their positions.

The majority of the fiercest fighting has been concentrated in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian troops have been pushing towards what is known as the “fortress belt” of cities.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have also edged closer to Zaporizhzhia, the capital of one of four Ukrainian provinces that the Kremlin has laid claim to as its own, along with Crimea, despite only occupying a fraction of the region.