Russian casualties in Ukraine war will pass half a million killed or injured by 2025, Britain says after Putin’s deadly rocket fire kills at least 39 civilians

The number of Russian casualties in the war in Ukraine will surpass half a million dead or wounded by 2025 if casualties continue at the current rate, Britain said.

An 18-hour airstrike in Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians on Friday, days after Ukraine’s deadly attack on a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia, as the war continues into its 23rd month.

The average daily number of wounded or dead Russian troops increased by almost 300 per day over the course of 2023 compared to last year, according to the latest Defense Intelligence update.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps compared the scale of the deaths and injuries to the nine-year Soviet-Afghan war, when Russia suffered 70,000 casualties.

“In Vladimir Putin’s senseless war, if casualties continue at the current rate until next year, by 2025 Russia will have suffered more than half a million deaths and injuries in three years of war,” he wrote in a post on previously Twitter.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a damaged business after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on December 29, 2023

The Defense Intelligence update said the increase “almost certainly” reflects the degradation of Russia’s armed forces and the transition to “a mass army of lower quality and large numbers since the ‘partial mobilization’ of reservists in September 2022.”

It will likely take Russia five to 10 years to rebuild a cohort of highly trained and experienced military units, the report said.

Moscow continued its assault on Ukraine on Friday, launching 122 missiles and dozens of drones across the country in an attack described by an air force official as the largest air barrage of the war.

At least 144 people were injured and an unknown number buried under rubble in the attack, which damaged a maternity hospital, apartment buildings and schools.

Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia had limited its cruise missile attacks for months in an apparent effort to build up supplies for massive attacks over the winter, hoping to break the spirit of Ukrainians.

Russian soldiers carry wreaths and a photo of 20-year-old Russian soldier Nikita Avrov during his funeral in Luga, about 150 km south of St. Petersburg on April 11, 2022. The soldier was born after Russian President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000.

Soldiers carry a coffin of 20-year-old Russian soldier Nikita Avrov during his funeral at a church in Luga, about 90 miles (150 km) south of St. Petersburg, on April 11, 2022

Red Army soldiers are welcomed with flowers in Termez, Uzbekistan, after crossing the Amu Darya River on the Soviet-Afghanistan border during the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989

Fighting along the front line has been largely bogged down by winter weather after Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive failed to make a significant breakthrough along the 1,000 kilometer line of contact.

After the last Russian attack, shelling continued in eastern and southern Ukraine and in the Russian border areas.

Russia said on Saturday that 14 people, including two children, were killed and 108 injured in “indiscriminate” Ukrainian attacks, including reportedly cluster bombs, on the nearby Russian provincial capital Belgorod, and vowed to retaliate.

Kommersant newspaper quoted a source close to Russia’s Investigative Committee as saying that rockets fired from a multiple rocket launcher in Ukraine’s Kharkov region had hit an ice rink on the central Cathedral Square, a shopping center, residential buildings and a car.

Russia requested a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday to discuss the strike.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined Mr Shapps in condemning Russian President Putin after Friday’s attack, with Mr Shapps labeling the attacks as ‘murderous air strikes’.

The British government said hundreds of British-made air defense missiles are being shipped to Ukraine in a bid to boost its defense capabilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has in recent weeks urged Western allies to provide the country with more air defenses to protect themselves from such air attacks.

Smoke rises in the sky over the city after a Russian missile and drone attack in Kiev, on December 29, 2023

A firefighter works at the scene of a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on December 29, 2023

A firefighter works at a site of a warehouse heavily damaged during a Russian missile attack in Kiev, December 29, 2023

Emergency services work at the scene of a nighttime rocket attack on a shopping center in Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk region, southeastern Ukraine, on December 29, 2023

These are signs of war fatigue, putting pressure on efforts to maintain support.

Zelensky said Kremlin forces have used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

“Today Russia uses almost every type of weapon in its arsenal,” Zelensky said on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

British military support to Ukraine has totaled £4.6 billion, of which £2.3 billion has been set aside until the end of the financial year.