The number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine is approaching 200,000, the New York Times writes, citing data from American and European officials.
They warn that casualties are difficult to estimate because Moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured. Russian losses increased, in particular, as a result of fighting in and around the eastern Ukrainian cities of Bakhmut and Soledar.
In total, the occupiers' losses in just 11 months of the invasion are eight times higher than the American losses in two decades of war in Afghanistan.
“With Moscow desperate for a major battlefield victory and viewing Bakhmut as the key to seizing the entire eastern Donbas area, the Russian military has sent poorly trained recruits and former convicts to the front lines, straight into the path of Ukrainian shelling and machine guns,” the newspaper notes.
As a result, according to U.S. officials, there are hundreds of Russians killed or wounded every day. They say that Russian President Putin may sustain hundreds of thousands of casualties from the Russian army in Ukraine.
At the same time, officials note that Ukraine’s casualty figures are also difficult to ascertain. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are killed and wounded every day near Bakhmut. Better-trained infantry formations are kept in reserve to safeguard them, while lesser prepared troops, such as those in the territorial defence units, bear the brunt of shelling the front line.