RUSSIA is on track to lose a million soldiers to death and injury by its so-called Victory Day.
The toll from Putin’s bloodbath already stands at 860,000 Kremlin casualties, according to UK defence intelligence.
UK defence intelligence sources say the toll from Putin’s bloodbath already stands at 860,000 Kremlin casualties[/caption]
Moscow has been losing an average of 1,500 troops a day since November.
If it stays on the current trajectory, Russia will lose another 115,000 dead and injured by May 9, when Putin and his stooges gather in the Red Square for their annual World War Two military parade.
The losses would bring the toll of dead and injured to 975,000.
And the eye-watering figures undermine Donald Trump’s claims that Russia “holds the cards” in any peace talks.
Former Tory Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “Russia is facing catastrophic losses and a broken economy.
“Putin is playing poker with an empty hand, but it seems he may have bluffed the United States.”
The MoD said Russia was forcing its mobilised soldiers to sign contracts to keep them in service — or they will be thrown into meat-grinder fights, where the chance of survival is just ten per cent.
It comes after Trump appalled allies by claiming that Ukraine started the war and that President Zelensky was a dictator.
He then said on Thursday: “I think the Russians want to see the war end, I really do. I think they have the cards a little bit, because they’ve taken a lot of territory. They have the cards.”
Britain has continued to reject Trump’s claims.
On Thursday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said at the G20 in South Africa: “If Putin is serious about a lasting peace it means finding a way forward which respects Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
