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Akbar Novruz

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The number of Russian military personnel killed in the war against Ukraine could approach one million over five years of full-scale fighting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with CBS News.

Zelenskyy said he expects the Russian military to lose another 300,000 personnel by the end of 2026.

He attributed Russia’s continued military campaign to what he described as insufficient pressure from Russian society on President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy said public discontent was beginning to emerge but had not yet reached a level he believed would force the Kremlin to change course.

According to the Ukrainian president, Putin does not want peace but is seeking a way to end the war that could be presented to the Russian public as a victory.

Zelenskyy also argued that concerns about the consequences of returning soldiers could be among the factors influencing Putin’s approach to a ceasefire.

“If one million people return home feeling defeated and angry, the consequences will be much louder,” Zelenskyy said.

He referred to the 2023 mutiny by fighters from the Wagner private military company, which he said involved around 5,000 fighters at the time, as an example of the potential consequences of dissatisfaction among armed personnel.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s minimum objective was the complete occupation of Donetsk Oblast. He added that Russian authorities present the goal to the population as achievable while repeatedly extending the expected timeline for its capture.

The casualty figures cited by Zelenskyy differ from other assessments. According to an assessment by British intelligence cited in the report, at least 500,000 Russian military personnel have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Neither figure represents an independently verified count of Russian military deaths.