VLADMIR Putin has acknowledged that thousands of Russian soldiers are dying in Ukraine each month in a shame-faced admission.
It comes just days after the tyrant lost more than 1,200 troops in just 24 hours as Russia marked its deadliest day in its meatgrinder war with Ukraine.
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The surge in casualties comes after Western nations – including the US – gave Ukraine the green light to strike Russia with their weapons.
Putin’s recent shock admission, however, has broken years of silence over Moscow’s battlefield losses.
He signalled a staggering 5,000 Russians are killed every month, and thousands more are wounded.
It would mean 135,000 Russians have died since the start of the full scale invasion in February 2022 – five times more than Moscow’s losses in its decade-long war in Afghanistan.
The figure is roughly on par with western estimates of Russian war deaths.
Britain said half a million Russians had been killed or injured since the start of the full scale invasion, at a ratio of roughly 1 to 3.
That would put Moscow’s the total death toll at 125k – 10,000 lower than the figures signalled by depot Putin.
Putin revealed his numbers at a conference in St Petersburg.
When journalists asked about battlefield losses he claimed Ukraine was losing 50,000 a month, half of them dead and half of them injured.
But he went on to say that Russia’s losses were five times less than Kyiv’s.
He said: “The Ukrainian army loses approximately 50,000 people per month.
“But this is sanitary and irreparable losses. The sum of the two.
“They have irreparable and sanitary losses in the proportion of approximately 50:50.”
According to Moscow-based Interfax news agency, he said the “relation of irreparable losses suffered by Russia and Ukrainian losses is about one to five.”
On Monday, Ukrainian general staff claimed that the Russian military suffered 1,270 casualties in 24 hours.
Kyiv also destroyed 14 Russian tanks, 22 armoured personnel carriers, and 47 artillery pieces, they said.
Kyiv has reported Russian casualty figures of more than 1,000 per day since Moscow launched a new offensive in Kharkiv on May 10.
Russian forces are thought to have captured 13 settlements and 116 square miles of land in the area.
Ukraine claims to have stabilised the new frontlines, although the fighting has drawn its resources away from other areas and is said to have led to small Russian advances along the rest of the frontline.
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