UK intelligence reports Russia may suffer record losses in war against Ukraine in 2025
UK Defence Intelligence has noted a tendency for the number of Russian losses in the war against Ukraine to continue to grow in 2025.
Source: UK Defence Intelligence update on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda
Details: UK intelligence has estimated Russia's total losses at around 950,000 dead and wounded since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
However, Russia has lost approximately 160,000 people in the first four months of 2025, based on estimates in the UK intelligence review.
"Should these casualty rates persist for the rest of 2025, this would be the costliest year of the war in terms of Russian personnel, continuing the year-on-year trend of casualty increases," the update says.
The report also notes that Russian losses in April 2025 remain, on average, lower than the "very high daily rates" of late 2024 but "still towards the high end in the overall context of the conflict".
"So far in 2025, Russia has not been able to translate continued heavy losses into significant advances in Ukraine," the update concluded.
Background:
Earlier, UK intelligence also described how Russia is recruiting foreigners to join its armed forces to participate in the war it has waged against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Estonian Defence Forces Intelligence Centre believes that Russia is continuing its war of attrition, depleting Ukraine's military resources, with no signs of preparations for a potential truce.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Russian barrage of drones and missiles hits beyond usual Ukraine targets
Still, the decoys have significant effects. Ukraine's military is forced to use its limited stockpiles of air defense missiles to counter Russia's large-scale assaults, which military experts and Ukrainian officials say are aimed at overwhelming Ukraine's air defense units on the ground. The air defense missiles are the only weapons capable of shooting down incoming missiles. Ukraine's air force said about 90 percent of the Russian drones were intercepted, were disabled by electronic jamming, or crashed without causing damage because they were decoys. But it added that only two-thirds of the missiles that Russia fired were shot down, including just one of seven ballistic missiles. These figures could not be independently verified. Advertisement It was unclear whether any civilians were killed during the overnight attack. But the Ukrainian air force reported the death of a pilot who crashed in his American-designed F-16 jet as he was trying to repel the Russian assault. Ukraine uses fighter jets to shoot down incoming missiles, for lack of enough ground-based air defenses. Advertisement The air force said the pilot had shot down seven aerial targets but went down with his jet after it was damaged in the attack. During nighttime attacks, Russia typically begins its assaults by sending waves of dozens of drones to strain Ukrainian air defenses, followed by missiles that are harder to intercept. A report released in May by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an American think tank, said Russia had significantly ramped up its use of drones starting last fall, 'increasing from approximately 200 launched per week to more than 1,000 per week by March 2025 as part of a sustained pressure campaign.' Given the current pace of attacks, Russia may exceed 5,000 drone launches this month, which would set a record for the conflict, said Konrad Muzyka, a military analyst at Rochan Consulting in Poland. To support these attacks, Russia has dramatically increased its production of long-range drones. 'Moscow will not stop as long as it has the capability to launch massive strikes,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media Sunday, as he called again for Ukraine's allies to increase sanctions on the Russian economy to cripple its weapons production capacities. Zelensky has also been lobbying President Trump to let Ukraine purchase American-designed Patriot air defense systems, the only ones reliably capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. Trump suggested last week that he was open to sending more Patriots to Ukraine, although it was unclear whether he meant batteries or only ammunition, and whether these would be donated or sold. Advertisement Russia's new campaign of air assaults on Ukraine has also come with deadly consequences for civilians. The United Nations human rights office reported Sunday that civilian casualties in Ukraine had increased 37 percent in the period from December to May, compared with the same period the previous year, with 968 civilians killed and 4,807 injured. The majority of these casualties occurred in Ukrainian-controlled areas. 'The war in Ukraine — now in its fourth year — is becoming increasingly deadly for civilians,' Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said in a statement. This article originally appeared in
Chicago Tribune
8 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Russia launches the biggest aerial attack since the start of the war, Ukraine says
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched its biggest aerial attack against Ukraine overnight, a Ukrainian official said Sunday, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the 3-year-old war. Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed. The onslaught was 'the most massive airstrike' on the country since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine's air force, told The Associated Press. The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, far from the front line. Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the country's air force said. Three people were killed in each of the drone strikes in the Kherson, Kharkiv and the Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to the three governors. Another person was killed by an airstrike in Kostyantynivka, local officials said. In addition to aerial attacks, a man died when Russian troops shelled the city of Kherson, and the body of a 70-year-old woman was found under the rubble of a nine-story building hit by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region. In the far-western Lviv region, a large fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also cut electricity to parts of the city. Ukraine's air force said one of its F-16 warplanes supplied by its Western partners crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets. The pilot died. Russia's Defense Ministry said it had shot down three Ukrainian drones overnight. Two people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone attack on the city of Bryansk in western Russia, regional Gov. Alexander Bogomaz said Sunday morning, adding that seven more Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region. Meanwhile, Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region. Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor. In other developments, Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Sergei Naryshkin, said he had spoken on the phone with his U.S. counterpart, CIA Director John Ratcliffe. 'I had a phone call with my American counterpart and we reserved for each other the possibility to call at any time and discuss issues of interest to us,' Naryshkin said in remarks to state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin, who posted them on his Telegram channel on Sunday. Sunday's attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments two days ago that Moscow is ready for a fresh round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. Two recent rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul were brief and yielded no progress on reaching a settlement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree to withdraw Ukraine from the Ottawa Convention banning antipersonnel land mines, a Ukrainian lawmaker said Sunday. The move follows similar recent steps by the Baltic states and Poland. The 1997 treaty prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines in an effort to protect civilians from explosives that can maim or kill long after fighting ends. 'This is a step that the reality of war has long demanded,' said Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense and intelligence. He noted that Russia is not a party to the convention 'and is massively using mines against our military and civilians.'
UPI
10 hours ago
- UPI
Ukrainian F-16 pilot killed in major Russian airstrikes
June 29 (UPI) -- A Ukrainian F-16 pilot died overnight Sunday during one of Russia's largest attacks since the invasion in 2022 that included several hundred drones and missiles, Ukraine's Air Force said. Lt. Colonel Maksym Ustymenko, 31, died after his fighter jet was damaged trying to intercept Russian missiles and drones, Ukraine's Air Force said. Ustymenko, who destroyed seven enemy air targets and managed to steer his jet away from populated areas but didn't eject in time. "Ustymenko did everything possible, but his jet was damaged and started losing altitude. He died like a hero!" Ukrainian military officials said. Ustymenko became Ukraine's third F-16 pilot to die in combat since the nation added U.S.-made planes last year. Russia attacked Ukraine with 537 missiles and drones, including 477 Shad-type attack drones and decoys launched into Russian-occupied Crimea, the Kiev Post reported from the military. Of those, 475 were shot down, including Shahed drones and 225 drones suppressed by electronic warfare. Russia's missile attack lasted nearly three hours and the drone siege went on for almost 10 hours. A Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Kirovske airfield in Crimea destroyed several helicopters and an air defense system, the Security Service of Ukraine said. "The SBU is systematically working to reduce the Russian Federation's capabilities to carry out air and bombing strikes on the territory of Ukraine," the military said. "The occupiers must realize that their expensive military equipment and ammunition are not protected anywhere: neither on the front line, nor in temporarily occupied territories, nor in the enemy's deep rear." The agency said Mi-8, Mi-26 and Mi-28 helicopters were destroyed. A dozen Ukrainians were injured in attacks against infrastructure, residential buildings and storage buildings in Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kyiv. Several explosions were reported in Kremenchuk and Lviv. And an industrial facility in the Poltava region caught fire as a result, officials said. A production site in Zaporizhzhia also was damaged. Russia, under Russian President Vladimir Putin, has increased its attacks on Ukraine's cities during a summer offensive, Politico Europe reported. "Just this week alone, there have been more than 114 missiles, over 1,270 drones, and nearly 1,100 glide bombs," Zelensky said on Telegram. "Putin long ago decided he would keep waging war, despite the world's calls for peace." Neighboring Poland, a member of NATO, scrambled jets and activated its ground-based air defense system, its military said. Zelensky urged more protection from its allies, including ballistic missiles, and efforts to end the war. "Ukraine must strengthen its air defense -- the thing that best protects lives," Zelensky said. "These are American systems, which we are ready to buy. We count on leadership, political will, and the support of the United States, Europe, and all our partners. I thank everyone who is helping." Last week during the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. might be able to provide anti-ballistic missiles. "We're going to see if we can make some available," Trump said. "They're very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel, and they're very effective. A hundred percent effective -- hard to believe how effective." The F-16 is a single-engine, single-seat supersonic jets have been produced by Lockheed Martin since 1976.
