The number of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed or wounded on the battlefield in Ukraine is approaching 500,000, US officials told the New York Times, marking a significant increase in the death toll this year after intense fighting in the east of the country, The New York Times reported. Guardian.

The losses of the Russian military are approaching 300,000, officials say.

Last November, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 100,000 soldiers on both sides had been killed or wounded.

But fierce fighting near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine and a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive against entrenched Russian positions led to heavy casualties on both sides, doubling the death toll since November.

It was said that Ukraine will have almost 70 thousand dead and 100-120 thousand wounded. The Russian standing army is two to three times larger than the Ukrainian one, and the country has a larger population from which to supply soldiers to the front lines.

Ukraine has about 500,000 troops, while Russia has more than 1.3 million, the newspaper estimated, including reservists and the Wagner militia.

Both estimates, which officials said were speculative and varied widely within the government, noted a high death-to-wounded ratio, with one Ukrainian killed for every two soldiers wounded on the battlefield.

Officials said they evaluated the data using “satellite images, intercepted messages, social media and information from reporters in the country, as well as official reports from both governments.”

The publication reported that officials “warned that it remains difficult to estimate casualty figures, as Moscow is believed to regularly understate the number of soldiers killed and wounded in the war, and Kyiv does not release official figures.”

U.S. intelligence officials “spent far more time focusing on Russian losses than on their ally, Ukraine,” the paper added.

Reports of 120,000 Russian soldiers killed far exceed the numbers confirmed by Russian journalists monitoring the conflict. Using data from open sources, Meduza and BBC Russian confirmed the death of 30,000 Russian soldiers based on posts by relatives on social networks, reports from local media or statements from local authorities.

“Meduza” and “Mediazona” estimated that 47,000 soldiers died during the war, not counting those who were in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.

The figures also mark a significant increase from an estimate released by the Defense Intelligence Agency in April, which put Russia at up to 223,000 casualties but only 43,000 battlefield deaths. Similarly, Ukrainian military casualties could reach 131,000 soldiers, the document said, including a maximum of 17,500 killed on the battlefield.

The death toll may reflect fluctuating estimates of the number of soldiers who survived combat wounds. Medical care is rudimentary, and soldiers are often evacuated in chaotic conditions to hospitals and aid stations. Russians, who were recruited from prison to fight in Ukraine, said that they were often sent to frontal assault on fortified positions and left on the battlefield in case of injury.

(Source: news.ro)