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Russia has lost 240,000 soldiers this year in Ukraine war, says UK Defence Minister
Servicemen of the 24th Mechanized brigade, named after King Danylo, of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a BM-21 Grad multiple-launch rocket system toward Russian troops, on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 15, 2025. (Photo: Reuters)
Even as Vladimir Putin has ramped up attacks on Ukraine and made gains on the ground, the costs have been huge, according to the latest Western assessment.
British Defence Minister John Healey has said that Russia suffered up to 240,000 casualties in the first seven months of this year.
'The number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded since the start of the full-scale invasion has surpassed 1,000,000. Since the beginning of this year alone—240,000 casualties,' said Healey at a meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group, as per military-focussed Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi.
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The British assessment is in line with US and Ukrainian assessments about the high toll of the war on Russia.
ALSO READ: With Russia's terms to Ukraine, Putin seeks surrender — not a peace deal
Since the beginning of the war in 2022, Russia has relied on a 'meat-grinder strategy' in which Russia has pushed waves after waves of soldiers to overwhelm Ukrainian defences with sheer numbers — instead of fighting tactical battles and trying to avoid losses. Even though the strategy has resulted in successes, the losses have been high for Russia and commentators have said that the approach may eventually fail if Western assistance to Ukraine continues.
Russia has lost over 1 million soldiers since 2022
The British assessment is in line with previously reported assessment of the United States, Ukraine, and independent researchers.
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that at least 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed this year.
Rubio said that 'since the beginning of 2025, roughly 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine—dead, not wounded'.
Similarly, Ukraine this month said that the Russian toll —injured and killed— this year has been 252,360.
Such figures are in line with the independent assessment of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that concluded that Russia had suffered around 1 million casualties. The assessment was published in June.
Out of around 1 million casualties, around 250,000 soldiers were killed and the rest were wounded, according to the CSIS study.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided an unnecessary escalation in transatlantic trade relations" and said that we were able to preserve our core interests, while adding that I would have very much wished for further relief in transatlantic trade. The Federation of German Industries was blunter. "Even a 15 per cent tariff rate will have immense negative effects on export-oriented German industry," said Wolfgang Niedermark, a member of the federation's leadership. While the rate is lower than threatened, "the big caveat to today's deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet," said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, today's agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the US-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy," Brzeski said. This risk seems to have been avoided. What about car companies? Asked if European carmakers could still sell cars at 15 per cent, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5 per cent. That has been the rate under Trump's 25 per cent tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting US car tariff of 2.5 per cent. The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said it suffered a $1.5 billion hit to profit in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the US have said they are holding the line on 2025 model year prices until further notice. The German automaker has a partial tariff shield because it makes 35 per cent of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the US in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said it expects prices to undergo significant increases in coming years. What were the issues dividing the two sides? 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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
