Russia could see 500,000 war casualties by year end
- 7 January, 01:54
The Russian military is on course to lose around 500,000 personnel by the end of 2024, UK Ministry of Defence has estimated.
According to the ministry, Russia was averaging 300 military casualties each day throughout 2023.
“The average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine has risen by almost 300 during the course of 2023. If the numbers continue at the current rate over the next year, Russia will have lost over half a million personnel in Ukraine,” the MoD tweeted in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.
The ministry claimed that Russia's inability to establish air superiority in the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine war continues to undermine their daily operation. Russia has been increasing its aerial strikes in recent days “but at a lower level than before the shootdowns,” it added.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps commented on the post, describing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as "Putin's pointless war."
“In Putin's pointless war, if casualties continue at the current rate through next year, by 2025 Russia will have sustained over half-a-million personnel killed & wounded over 3 years of war” Grant Shapps posted. He further compared Russia’s losses to the Soviet Union's 70,000 casualties in the nine-year Soviet-Afghan War.
