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Akbar Novruz

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The United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) Director Anne Keast-Butler revealed on Wednesday that the latest intelligence shows that a total of close to 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, AzerNEWS reports.

Speaking at an annual threat assessment session, Keast-Butler commented that this pointed to the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "going backwards on the battlefield."

The intelligence agency director went on to say that Moscow was "scaling up its daily hybrid activity" against Europe and increasingly targeting "civilian infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust."

Russian forces have been losing troops at an unprecedented rate, often exceeding 1,200 personnel per day, as leadership continues to trade heavy manpower for small tactical gains.

Independent sources and investigative journalists have verified over 150,000 specific Russian deaths. However, these are strictly based on publicly available data like obituaries and cemetery records, meaning the actual figures are much higher.