A British intelligence agency has revealed the number of Russian soldiers who have been killed since the unlawful war in Ukraine started in February 2022. Anne Keast-Butler, head of the UK intelligence agency GCHQ, said new intelligence shows that nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives in the war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin ordered the illegal invasion of the neighbouring country.
This is the first time the public has been provided with an official number of Russian war fatalities since February 2022. While Russia doesn’t release official figures, previous analyses have given an assessment of the total Russian war casualties, including those injured as well as the troops killed.
Ms Keast-Butler said the harrowing figure showed Vladimir Putin was “going backwards on the battlefield”.
Delivering the agency’s annual threat assessment at Bletchley Park on May 27, Ms Keast-Butler said Russia was “scaling up its daily hybrid activity” against the UK and Europe. Moscow, she said, was “relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust”.
Russia has previously denied any involvement in hybrid attacks on European soil.
Ms Keast-Butler said the GCHQ works with intelligence and defence partners to “degrade and reduce” the Russian threat.
She also said: “One area in sharp focus for us is protecting the data and energy flowing through the critical cables and pipelines in and around British waters – we do this by exposing Russia’s intent, motive and underwater capabilities.
“We’re also disrupting Russia’s efforts to smuggle Western tech, fending off cyber attacks and countering reckless sabotage and assassination attempts.”
The high number of fatalities in the war represents a big blow for Putin, who has dragged his country into a war expected to last only for a few days, heavily impacting Russia’s economy.
Speaking at the Vatican, he said: “I am following with concern the war in Ukraine. War does not solve problems, but aggravates them. It does not build security, but multiplies suffering and hatred”.