UK intelligence estimates 500,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine

UK Chief of the Defence Staff Rich Knighton said British intelligence estimates around 500,000 Russian military personnel have been killed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, with total casualties, including wounded, reaching roughly 1.5 million. Most of those losses, he said, occurred after January 2023, a period in which Russia gained only about 2 percent of Ukrainian territory.

Knighton called the toll a 'senseless and futile loss of human life' for what he described as an illegitimate war aim, and GCHQ's Anne Keast-Butler has cited similar figures. He also pointed to slower Russian economic growth, weaker consumer demand, and persistent inflation as costs of the war for ordinary Russians.

Ukraine's General Staff separately reported on Sept. 9 that Russian personnel losses, killed and wounded combined, had surpassed 1.5 million since the invasion began.

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