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Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
According to reports, Russia has lost over 75,000 soldiers in the Ukraine war who have either been killed or have been injured.
A report in a British newspaper quoting classified US intelligence revealed that the casualty rate amounts to half of the number of troops which were initially committed to the war when President Vladimir Putin announced his "special military operation" against Ukraine on February 24.
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The Kremlin has however dismissed the figures calling it a "hoax". Russia hasn't officially released its casualty figures in the past few months except in the initial days of the Ukraine campaign. In March, Russia said 1,351 soldiers were killed in action in Ukraine.
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The report said if the new classified casualty rates are true then the Ukraine war is the "worst ever war in terms of casualties" and the "second worst worldwide since World War-II" with only the Vietnam war being the biggest in which at least 350,000 US troops were killed. The report claimed the former Soviet Union suffered nearly 70,000 casualties in the Afghanistan war in the mid-80s.
Russia had decided to concentrate its forces in the eastern region after suffering reverses at the beginning of the war with its forces failing to capture Kyiv as Ukrainians put up a fierce defence.
However, the report added that casualty rates are highly speculative. The report comes just days after CIA Director William Burns estimated that nearly 15,000 Russian forces were killed and "maybe three times that wounded" adding that it was "quite significant set of losses". Burns informed that "Ukrainians have suffered as well" saying that it was "probably a little less than that".
Last month Ukraine said 100 to 200 troops were being killed per day. Burns said Russia has "retreated" to a "more comfortable way of war" by using "long-range firepower to stand off and effectively destroy Ukrainian targets" in order to "compensate for the weaknesses in manpower".
(With inputs from Agencies)
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