September was the bloodiest month for Russian soldiers in Ukraine war

Russia sustains more than 600,000 casualties since invasion began, with 38,000 estimated last month

September was the bloodiest month for Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, a senior US official said.
The Pentagon estimates that Russia has sustained more than 600,000 casualties—115,000 killed and 500,000 wounded—since launching its invasion in February 2022.
This is a significant jump in previous US intelligence assessments earlier this year that put the figure at around 350,000.
“Russian forces sustained more casualties in terms of both killed and wounded in action than in any other month of the war,” the US official said of this month’s death toll.
“Russian losses, again, both killed and wounded in action in just the first year of the war exceeded the total of all Russian losses, or Soviet losses in any conflict since World War II combined.”
Recent estimates by Britain’s ministry of defense put Russian casualties at more than 38,000 for September, with a daily average of 1,271.
US officials said the heavy losses were due to a grinding war of attrition with both sides attempting to exhaust the other by inflicting maximum damage.
Despite taking heavy casualties, Russia has made steady gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas regions, capturing some strategically important towns in recent months.
Ukrainian and Russian officials have described how Moscow has sacrificed thousands of infantry fighters, sending them wave after wave to wear down Ukrainian defenses.
“It’s kind of the Russian way of war in that they continue to throw mass into the problem,” the US official said.
They added: “And I think we’ll continue to see high losses on the Ukrainian side.”
US estimates put Ukrainian losses at more than 57,500 killed and 250,000 wounded.
Kyiv has sought to solve its manpower issues by replacing its losses through introducing new, and controversial, mobilization laws.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has so far resisted another mass mobilization of his population because it would be seen as hugely unpopular.
Instead, Moscow has offered huge financial rewards—sometimes five times the average annual wage for a Russian—to entice volunteers to sign up to fight in Ukraine.
“We’re just watching very closely how long that stance can actually go on,” a US official said.