Russian Dead and Wounded Passes 100,000 in War's Ninth Month: Pentagon

The body count of both Russians and Ukrainians keeps rising even with Russia's retreat from the occupied Kherson. A top official from the Pentagon said Russia's combined killed and wounded has already topped 100,000 and Ukraine civilian deaths has surpassed a grim 40,000 milestone.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave these numbers as he spoke at The Economic Club of New York ahead of Veterans Day last week, also noting Russia will take "weeks" to evacuate Kherson.

"The initial indicators are they are in fact doing it," Milley said of Russia's retreat from Kherson. "I believe they're doing it in order to preserve their force, to reestablish defensive lines south of the (Dnieper) river, but that remains to be seen."

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States will continue monitoring Russia's claim of retreating Kherson. Sullivan said it would be a major win, but not necessarily the end of war.

"If this does come to pass, that will mean in the battle of Kyiv, in the battle of Kherson, in the battle of Kharkiv, the Ukrainians will have prevailed against an invading, marauding force that conducted an illegal war in their country,'' Sullivan said in the USA Today. "But of course, it's not the end of the war.''

Ukraine's tally of Russian deaths is 80,860, including 650 deaths within the last day.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky last month said that major milestones of Russian deaths in the ongoing war won't change the Kremlin's mind about continuing to fight it.

"So many citizens of Russia gave their lives for the opportunity of a handful of people in the Kremlin to ignore reality," Zelensky said. "And according to the way the Russian "burial" continues, we can say that even 100,000 dead Russian citizens will not prompt the Kremlin to think about something."

The war enters its 264th day on Monday, and it's quickly approaching the 10-month mark.

Russia amassed troops along Ukraine's northern and western borders in late January while it also conducted military with neighboring Belarus. Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24 this year and there have been heavy casualties on both sides.

Since the war began, Russia has failed to overtake Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa, but they occupied many regions in the eastern portion of Ukraine. Russia has occupied most of the Donbas Oblast, which includes Luhansk, Severodonetsk, Donetsk and Mariupol. They occupied the Crimea peninsula in 2014.

One month ago, Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions–Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson-claiming the citizens of those regions overwhelmingly voted for it. Zelensky said called the situations in Donetsk and Luhansk "difficult."

"A very difficult situation persists in Donetsk region and Luhansk region. The most difficult is the Bakhmut direction," Zelensky said at the time. "As in previous days, we are holding our positions.

"In general, in the east and south, we are doing everything to make the occupiers feel that they have no prospects, no matter who they send to fight against us, it will only end in defeat for them," Zelensky said.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.