British intelligence: Russian army losses in Ukraine exceeded 350,000

This indicates Russia’s readiness to wage a war of attrition with unlimited forces

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has lost more than 355,000 military personnel in killed and wounded, according to British Ministry of Defence intelligence. According to its estimates, in February this year, the daily figures reached their highest levels since the beginning of the war. Thus, the Russian army lost an average of 983 people killed and wounded per day.

The sharp increase indicates Russia’s readiness to wage a war of attrition with unlimited forces.

“Although costly in terms of human lives, such tactics increase pressure on Ukraine’s positions along the entire frontline,” the intelligence service said.

In February, the Russian army captured Avdiivka in Donetsk region. The battle for the city became one of the bloodiest since the beginning of the war. For several months, the Russian command did not hesitate to send unit after unit into the meat grinder so that President Vladimir Putin would have something to show his electorate before the elections.

The Russian army has a “different pain threshold” and an “unconventional” view of what constitutes acceptable combat casualties, a senior Western official told The New York Times. There were also several cases of mass deaths of soldiers in February while lining up in the war zone.

In mid-February, the Pentagon estimated the number of Russian military deaths at 60,000, and the total losses in killed and wounded at 315,000. This is almost 90% of the personnel that the Russian Ministry of Defence had before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Losses will not stop Russia. It still has an advantage in manpower on the front line, and it can continue to launch attacks on many fronts,” said Rob Lee, a military expert and senior fellow at the American Institute for Foreign Policy Studies.