Some 150,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to French estimates communicated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in an interview published Friday in the European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
• Read also: Ukraine claims to counter numerous Russian attacks in the east
• Read also: Ukraine says it destroyed six Russian planes at air base
“Russia’s military failure is already here. We estimate Russian military losses at 500,000, including 150,000 deaths,” declared Stéphane Séjourné.
“Why all this? That can be summed up in two words: for nothing,” he added.
The estimate of the number of Russian deaths is slightly lower than that revealed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last February, when he reported 180,000 Russian soldiers having died in two years of war.
Britain, for its part, estimated at the end of April that around 450,000 Russians had been killed or injured in Ukraine.
Moscow does not disclose any information on the number of dead and wounded among its troops.
The Ukrainian army, whose losses are not communicated, has been on the defensive since the failure of its major counter-offensive last summer.
Russia has the initiative against an adversary which is struggling to recruit new soldiers and is faced with slowness in Western aid.
The resumption of American military assistance, after the approval, at the end of April, of a $61 billion aid plan for Ukraine, should allow Kiev to consolidate its forces and try to stabilize the front, particularly in the east in the areas of Tchassiv Iar and Avdiïvka.
Ukraine is all the more in difficulty because it lacks air defense means, which has allowed the Russians to bomb essential infrastructure, in particular the electricity network and railway lines.
Some military analysts believe Russia may be on the verge of launching a major new offensive in Ukraine.
