Ukraine claims that 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched an invasion in February of last year.
Although Western officials believe that number is much lower, they are certain that the number of Russian casualties dwarfs Moscow’s official total of 6,000.
Officials in Kyiv offer daily updates on the amount of Russians “eliminated” in the fighting and today that number crossed a quarter of a million.
Citing sources in the General Staff, the website Ukrinform said that 540 Russian soldiers had been killed in the last 24 hours bringing the total number to 250,240.
If that figure is accurate, it would mean an average of 472 Russian military personnel were killed on average every day of the war so far.
The general consensus by Western intelligence is that around a fifth of that number of Russian troops have been killed – still a staggering amount of causalities.
Top secret US intelligence documents leaked in April suggest that the White House believed about 43,000 Russians had been killed at the time.
Since then, Ukraine has launched a gruelling counteroffensive which has seen both sides take high causalities.
Similarly, in February the UK’s Ministry of Defense said that between 40,000 and 60,000 Russians had died in the first year of the war – that estimate is now surely higher as well.
The Russian independent media outlets Meduza and Mediazone estimated around 47,000 of Moscow’s troops had been killed as of last month using statistical analysis.
Although these estimates are well below Ukraine’s own, they dwarf Moscow’s official number of 6,000 Russian service personnel killed.
Kyiv’s claims come amid fierce fighting in the south and east of the country which has been taking a heavy toll on both sides.
Russia claimed – without providing concrete evidence – that a Ukrainian offensive around the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast has stalled after weeks of heavy fighting.
Around Bakhmut in the east of the country, there have been reports that Kyiv’s forces are making small gains despite heavy shelling.
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar claimed that Russian forces in the area fired nearly 500,000 artillery shells in the east of the country in the “last week alone”.
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