Russia continues to suffer extremely heavy losses in Ukraine - UK intelligence

Russian forces continue to suffer extremely heavy losses in Ukraine during their full-scale aggression against the country.

According to Ukrinform, the UK Defense Ministry said this in its latest intelligence update published on Twitter.

"As Russia continues to suffer extremely heavy casualties, the impact varies dramatically across Russia's regions. In proportion to the size of their population, the richest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been left relatively unscathed. This is especially true for the families of the country's elite," the ministry said.

It added that on February 21, Russian senior officials were photographed making up the front two rows of the audience of President Putin's state of the nation speech. None of these are known to have children serving in the military.

"In many of the Eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate 30+ times higher than in Moscow. In places, ethnic minorities take the biggest hit; in Astrakhan some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tartar populations," the intelligence update said.

According to the UK Defense Ministry, as the Russian Defense Ministry seeks to address its continued deficit of combat personnel, insulating the better-off and more influential elements of Russian society will highly likely remain a major consideration.

From February 24, 2022 to March 12, 2023, Ukrainian forces eliminated about 159,900 Russian soldiers, including 1,090 over the past day alone.