Russia likely suffered at least 355,000 casualties in Ukraine war - UK MoD

More than 355,000 Russian personnel have been killed and wounded in the Ukraine war, according to the UK MoD.

In its daily update published on Sunday, the UK Ministry of Defence estimated that the average daily number of Russian casualties throughout February was the highest since the start of the invasion.

It put the figure at 983 casualties per day.

Both Kyiv and Moscow shroud their causality counts in secrecy, due to the effects they can have on army morale, populations at home and how the war is perceived abroad.

Each side can overestimate the number of enemy dead and wounded, meanwhile.

Euronews could not independently verify the figures from the UK, one of Kyiv’s principal European allies.

Friends and relatives visit the grave of a Ukrainian serviceman at the Kryvyi Rih cemetery in eastern Ukraine, Sunday, April 23, 2023. Bernat Armangue/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.

Writing on X, the UK MoD said the mounting Russian casualties reflect Moscow’s “commitment to mass and attritional warfare.”

“Although costly in terms of human life, the resulting effect has increased the pressure on Ukraine’s position across the frontline,” it added.

It is unclear how the UK MoD counts the number of Russian dead and wounded.

In February, Russian forces captured the Ukrainian town of Adviivka – their biggest gain in many months – after one of the most intense battles of the war.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops advanced some 9 kilometres and would press forward after the deadly urban battle in the eastern Donetsk region.

On 25 February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

“Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us,” he said in Kyiv.

It was the first time Ukraine confirmed the number of its losses, but Zelenskyy did not disclose the number of troops that were wounded or missing.

Ukraine’s number one said no exact figure would be given until the war ended.

Russia has provided few official casualty figures.

The most recent data from the Defense Ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 deaths.