The Russian summer offensive in Ukraine has cost Moscow a record 1,200 personnel killed or wounded daily, raising questions over whether its population can sustain the war.
Russian forces have suffered a total of 500,000 casualties, of whom more than 150,000 were killed in action, since their 2022 invasion, western officials have reported.
The high casualty rate appears to have been confirmed by President Vladimir Putin, who inadvertently stated on Wednesday that Russia was suffering 20,000 casualties a month, which included 5,000 dead.
Reported Russian personnel casualties in May averaged 1,200 a day, “the highest reported since the beginning of the war”, a media briefing was told.
But Russia’s continued offensive around the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv will “continue to be challenging for Ukrainian ground forces over the next three months”, an official said.
Despite its losses, Russia was still able to regenerate about 30,000 recruits a month, albeit most of them poorly trained.
While the recruitment could be sustained for “a period of time” an official told The National it was “very difficult to determine the time at which the domestic consensus fails in a nation, and they're unable to sustain that level of recruitment”.
This would become clearer by autumn depending on the attrition suffered during the summer offensive, the official added.
Moscow’s forces are likely to suffer further high casualties after the US, UK and other nations agreed to allow strikes by their advanced missiles against troops assembling across the border in Russia itself.
“Until that decision had been taken, Russian forces were quite free to mass both [artillery] fires and manpower almost within sight of Ukrainian forces in order to launch an offensive, and there was nothing they were able to do about it,” an official said.
Ukraine-Russia conflict latest - in pictures
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Ukrainian rescuers at the site of a rocket attack on a residential building in Dnipro, south-eastern Ukraine. EPA -
Rescues carry a person wounded by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro. Reuters -
Rescuers tackle a blaze at a building struck by Russian bombs, in Dnipro. AP -
An apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike in Dnipro. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions near the town of Kupyansk, Kharkiv Region. AFP -
A building destroyed by a Russian air strike in the front-line town of Orikhiv. AP -
A dog stands on the rubble as rescuers work at the site of a destroyed building during a Russian missile strike in Chernihiv. Reuters -
A Ukrainian serviceman works on an FPV drone in a workshop in the Donetsk region. Reuters -
Local resident Kateryna, 77-years-old, walks with a litter of puppies, which she feeds in the yard of her bomb-damaged apartment block in the town of Kurakhove. AFP -
Ukrainian rescuers at the scene of a missile strike near a residential building, in Zaporizhzhia. EPA -
A woman looks at the damage in her flat after debris from a missile strike hit nearby, in Kyiv. EPA -
Ukrainian firefighters at the scene of a missile strike in Kyiv. EPA -
Ukrainian servicemen take part in military training at an undisclosed location near the frontline. EPA -
Ukrainian troops run near the site of a rocket attack on an industrial building, in Kharkiv. EPA -
A pilot operates a drone at a training ground in the Kyiv region. AFP -
Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are depicted in a tug-of-war on a memorial in Izium, Kharkiv region. AP -
A man looks at his home in a damaged apartment building in Izium, Kharkiv. AP -
Ukrainian civilian women are trained to use weapons, in Kyiv. AFP -
A Ukrainian soldier mans a position as new recruits receive training at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region. EPA -
A man pays tribute at a makeshift memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers, at the Independence Square in Kyiv. AFP -
An emergency worker at the scene of a Russian attack in Odesa. AP -
Ukrainian recruits are trained by members of the Danish military, in the east of England. AP -
Danylo, commander of an engineering and sapper company of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, inspects pyramidal anti-tank obstacles known as 'dragon's teeth' before installing them into a new fortification line in Zaporizhzhia region. Reuters
The ability to launch systems such as the Himars precision rockets, that have a range of up to 300km, will also “buy time” for more western arms to arrive and for Ukraine to reinforce their defences against the Russian offensive, which currently appears to be in abeyance.
In response to the western move, Mr Putin on Thursday said Russia would provide long-range strike capabilities to unspecified countries for strikes against the West.
It is understood that the threat was made to curtail the West’s policy although the western officials indicated that Russia had “low reserves of its premium weapons”, allowing them to strike deep into Ukraine.
