Putin's Military Losses Could Reach 100,000 in 19 Days: Ukraine

Russia's total death toll in its war with Ukraine passed 90,000 on Friday, according to one estimate, pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin's army into a new level of casualties caused by the ongoing conflict.

The pace of Russian losses in recent days puts Moscow on track to reach the even higher benchmark of 100,000 deaths in 19 days, according to a Newsweek calculation.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine provides daily estimates of how many Russian personnel had been eliminated since the day before, as well as the total number of Russian losses since the war began on February 24. These numbers have not been verified by Russia or independently confirmed by Newsweek.

On average, Russia has lost 531 soldiers per day over the last 10 days, Friday included. This means that if Russian losses keep pace with this average moving forward, the Russian leader could lose more than 10,000 additional soldiers in the next 19 days, pushing it past the 100,000 mark.

The war in Ukraine has now continued for more than nine months as Russia continues its deadly and widely-condemned invasion. In the wake of some recent setbacks for Russia as Ukraine conducts counteroffensives on several fronts, a top Ukrainian defense official said Wednesday that Putin's army was facing "colossal" losses during efforts to capture the eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become a main focus in the current stage of the war.

The Kremlin has rarely released estimates on its own troop losses, and has reported significantly lower numbers than Ukrainian and Western officials. The last of these updates came in September when Russia said it had lost 5,937 soldiers.

For comparison, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said late Thursday that between 10,000 and 13,000 of the country's troops had died in the war, NBC Bay Area reported. These numbers have not been confirmed by Ukraine's military and are far lower than estimates from Western officials.

U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that the Pentagon assessed that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured, and that Ukraine has "probably" seen an equivalent level of casualties, according to The Washington Post.

Soldiers on both sides of the conflict are not the only ones who have been impacted by the war. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that it had recorded 17,023 civilian casualties in Ukraine, 6,655 killed and 10,368 injured, from the start of the war to November 27.

"There has been a tremendous amount of suffering," Milley said while speaking about the war at an event in New York on November 9, according to the Post.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's Defense Ministry for comment.