Putin has lost 450,000 soldiers, 13,000 tanks & vehicles and nearly 500 aircraft in Ukraine, says UK intelligence

RUSSIA has lost an enormous 450,000 soldiers and 13,000 precious tanks in Ukraine, according to a UK tally.

The humiliating blow for Putin means Moscow has lost an average of 560 troops a day since he unleashed his bloodbath invasion two years ago.

A Russian serviceman stands guard in an area near the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol

A Russian tank burns at the roadside amid a Ukrainian ambush

It is 100,000 more than the previous UK estimate shared in February by Britain’s Defence Intelligence.

And Russia‘s losses have surged to 1,300 troops a day in just the last two months.

The eye-watering casualty figures don’t include mercenary groups like Wagner who were famously slaughtered during “human wave” assaults in the meat grinder battle of Bakhmut last year.

In December the UK said 20,000 of Wagner’s soldiers had been killed and another 40,000 had been injured.

The latest figures also don’t account for the humiliating “tens of thousands” of soldiers who have deserted Putin’s armed forces.

They refer to the Russian soldiers taken out of battle by death or injury at the hands of Kyiv’s impressive and resilient army.

Armed Forces Minister Leo Doherty also estimates Moscow has lost almost 3,000 tanks – up from 2,000 a year ago.

The Sun exclusively revealed in February that Putin had lost almost all of his valuable tank force since invading Ukraine.

We reported that Russia had been forced to turn to mothballed and rusting weapons from the Cold War after losing almost 3,000 tanks.

Former Brigadier Ben Barry, who served in the British Army, told The Sun that Putin’s crumbling forces had maybe two to three years left worth of resources.

Former Scots Guards officer Doherty said of the latest intelligence estimate: “We estimate that approximately 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands more have already deserted since the start of the conflict.”

He added: “The number of personnel killed serving in Russian private military companies is not clear.

“We also estimate that over 10,000 Russian armoured vehicles, including nearly 3,000 main battle tanks, 109 fixed wing aircraft, 136 helicopters, 346 unmanned aerial vehicles, 23 naval vessels of all classes, and over 1,500 artillery systems of all types have been destroyed, abandoned, or captured by Ukraine since the start of the conflict.”

Death tolls are closely guarded secrets and notoriously hard to track as both sides have an incentive to play down their own losses and exaggerate their enemy’s toll.

The latest UK estimate is broadly inline with Kyiv’s claims that Russia has lost 470,000 troops since the start of the full scale invasion on Feb 24 2022.

Previously UK officials have said Russia’s dead to wounded ratio was roughly one to four, which suggests at least 90,000 Russian soldiers have died.

A joint investigation by the BBC and independent Mediazona found at least 50,000 Russian soldiers had died.

They trawled cemeteries for fresh gravestones, official public recored and death announcements shared by friends and relatives on social media.

And they said the real figure was “likely to be much higher”.

In December Britain said around 50,000 Russian troops had been killed as well as 20,000 Wagner mercenaries.

The latest UK claim that Russia has lost almost 3,000 tanks chimes exactly with the Oryx blog that tracks visually confirmed losses.

It says Russia has lost 2,936 tanks of which 1,960 were destroyed, 514 were captured, 308 were abandoned and 154 were damaged.

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said Russia had “lost more than 3,000 main battle tanks” in February.

It said: “Its full-scale invasion has cost Russia more than 3,000 main battle tanks, roughly as many as the Kremlin had in its active inventory before February 2022.

“Russia has been drawing on stored equipment to replenish losses.”

Ukraine’s President Zelensky said in February that 31,000 of his soldiers had died – but western officials have hinted the true toll is much higher.

The US-based New York Times claimed 70,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed by last summer, citing US officials.

The Sun revealed in February that Putin is turning to old and rusting Cold War tanks after heavy losses on the battlefield

Russian soldiers taken out by Ukrainian forces during an intense battle for Avdiivka