More than 500,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to a senior British defense official.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the UK’s Chief of the Defense Staff, said the deaths form part of an estimated 1.5 million Russian casualties during the war.
Britain’s assessment broadly aligns with casualty figures released by Ukraine’s military. Russian officials did not immediately comment.
Despite its larger military, Moscow has struggled to achieve major battlefield gains. Western officials and analysts say the pace of Russia’s advances has slowed markedly this year.
Knighton also said Russia has suffered “enormous” equipment losses, including more than 10,000 armored and protected vehicles, nearly 3,000 air defense and artillery systems, and more than 370 aircraft and helicopters.
He did not provide an assessment of Ukraine’s losses.
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv regularly publishes updates on battlefield casualties.
Russian drones target Kyiv gas stations, aiming to rattle civilians
Meanwhile, Russian drones struck roadside gas stations in Kyiv for a second consecutive day on Friday, widening an aerial campaign that Ukrainian officials say is intended to unsettle civilians.
The strikes hit two Ukrnafta gas stations. The prosecutor’s office said two people were killed and six others were wounded at one of the sites.
Russian attacks on urban gas stations have increased in recent months, particularly in eastern and southern regions close to the front line. Ukrainian officials describe them as part of a broader effort to disrupt daily life and erode public morale, alongside strikes on food distribution hubs that have at times left supermarket shelves in the capital bare.
“Russia is systematically attacking places where it knows people will be spending their time going about their daily lives, seeking to maximize casualties, spread fear, and put pressure on Ukrainian society,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X late Thursday.
Authorities have urged residents not to linger near gas stations and other exposed infrastructure during air raid alerts.
Ukraine is urgently trying to improve its air defenses as Russia’s invasion stretches into its fifth year, and on Thursday won pledges of more support from Canada.
Russian shopping mall strikes kill 5 in central Ukraine
Pavlohrad, a city in central Ukraine, observed an official day of mourning Friday for five residents killed near shopping malls in broad daylight by Russian drones the previous day.
The attack also wounded 67 people, Sybiha said on X.
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In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a 32-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son were wounded in an overnight Russian drone attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
The drones struck a nine-story apartment block and a shopping mall, it said.
Efforts to put out the blazes were slowed by the constant threat of repeat strikes, forcing firefighters to stop working and take shelter, it added.
In Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, a Russian daylight attack Friday wounded 12 people, according to local officials.
Russia says it stopped 777 Ukrainian drones
Ukraine, meanwhile, has extended its own long-range drone campaign deep into Russia, straining air defenses across its bigger neighbor’s vast territory.
On Thursday, its military reported hitting a refinery more than 1,800 miles away in Siberia as Kyiv tries to hurt Russia’s vital oil sector. Its strikes have caused fuel shortages in Russia, one of the world’s biggest energy producers.
Russia’s oil product exports hit record lows in August, and Moscow is importing fuel from South Korea and India, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air said in a report.
“Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s refining capacity have turned tables on the world’s once largest oil product exporter to see them start importing fuels, with imports surging to a record 189,600 tons in August — more than seven times the previous monthly high,” the Finland-registered nonprofit said Thursday.
Ukraine launched a major barrage overnight from Thursday to Friday, with the Russian Defense Ministry saying air defenses intercepted 777 Ukrainian drones over 16 Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and the Caspian seas.
Two people were killed and three others wounded overnight in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Tula region south of Moscow, local officials said Friday.
A Ukrainian drone strike during the night started a fire at the Saratov oil refinery in southwestern Russia, Russian independent online outlet Astra said Friday. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted that refinery, which was last hit in early August.
Major online retailer Ozon said its logistics facility in the same city was struck and set ablaze by a Ukrainian drone, though no casualties were reported.
Ozon is a competitor to Wildberries, whose facilities Ukraine has also targeted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said long-range strikes overnight hit eight Russian regions, including a business and an oil industry facility in the Saratov region.
The attacks were “aimed at reducing Russia’s capacity to wage war,” he said on X Friday.