Russia has suffered its worst month in terms of casualties since the start of its war in Ukraine, the UK’s chief of defence staff has said.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC that Vladimir Putin’s forces lost 1500 soldiers, killed or injured, “every single day” in the month of October.
Since Russia invaded the neighbouring country, Putin has lost more than 700,000 troops. However, the exact figure is difficult to know, as the Kremlin does not release its military figures.
Sir Tony told Laura Kuenssberg that Russian citizens were paying an “extraordinary price” for their leader’s war.
Sir Tony told the broadcaster: “Russia is about to suffer 700,000 people killed or wounded – the enormous pain and suffering that the Russian nation is having to bear because of Putin’s ambition”.
He added that the human losses came in exchange “for tiny increments of land”.
“There is no doubt that Russia is making tactical, territorial gains and that is putting pressure on Ukraine,” he said.
Sir Tony was quizzed over whether Britain and European allies would stick it out in support of Ukraine, amid concerns that President-elect Donald Trump would seek to bring the war to an end on terms that may not be favourable to Kyiv.
Sir Tony vowed Britain would support President Volodymyr Zelensky for “as long as it takes”.
“That’s the message President Putin has to absorb and the reassurance for President Zelensky,” he told the BBC.
Meanwhile, video footage has emerged of Russia military hardware being obliterated by Ukrainian drones.
A clip shared by the official Ukrainian Defence X account, under the caption “feel the power of [Ukraine flag] drones”, shows what appears to be a Russian T-80BVM tank being “turned into a pile of metal” by a single Ukrainian drone strike.
Another video claims to show a Russian Shahed drone being shot down by a Ukrainian fighter jet.
Overnight, Ukraine is believed to have launched a massive drone attack on the Moscow region, which resulted in several blazes erupting and Russian forces having to shoot down dozens of UAVs.
