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More than half a million Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022, a senior British defense official said on Friday.
The deaths are part of 1.5 million total Russian casualties in Ukraine, said Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the UK's Chief of the Defence Staff.
The British figures roughly align with those released by the Ukrainian military. Russian authorities did not comment on the matter.
The Russian army, which outnumbers that of its neighbor, is struggling to advance on the battlefield. Western officials and analysts say the Russian advance has slowed significantly this year.
Russia's armed forces have also lost an "enormous" amount of military equipment, Knighton told reporters. This includes more than 10,000 armored and protected vehicles, nearly 3,000 air defense and artillery systems, and more than 370 aircraft and helicopters, he added.
He did not specify what Ukraine's human and material losses were.
Neither Moscow nor Kyiv offers regular updates on their battlefield casualties.
Russian drones attack gas stations in Kyiv
For the second consecutive day, Russian drones attacked roadside gas stations in Kyiv on Friday, as Moscow expands its air war in what Ukrainian authorities say is an effort to unsettle civilians.
The attacks struck two Ukrnafta gas stations, killing two people and injuring six at one of them, according to the prosecutor's office.
Russian operations against urban gas stations have intensified in recent months, especially in regions near the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine. It is part of a campaign to disrupt civilian life and weaken morale that has also included attacks on food distribution centers, sporadically leaving some supermarket shelves empty in the Ukrainian capital.
"Russia is systematically attacking places where it knows people will spend their time going about their daily lives, seeking to maximize casualties, sow fear and pressure Ukrainian society," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X late Thursday.
Authorities have urged residents not to remain near gas stations and other exposed infrastructure during air raid alerts.
Ukraine is trying to urgently improve its air defenses as the Russian invasion enters its fifth year, and on Thursday it secured pledges of further support from Canada.
Russian attacks on shopping centers kill 5 in central Ukraine
Pavlohrad, a city in central Ukraine, observed an official day of mourning on Friday for five residents who died the day before near shopping centers attacked by Russian drones in broad daylight.
The attack also left 67 injured, Sybiha noted on X.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a 32-year-old woman and her 10-year-old son were injured in an overnight Russian drone attack, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service. The drones struck a nine-story apartment building and a shopping center, it detailed.
Efforts to extinguish the fires were slowed by the constant threat of new attacks, which forced firefighters to stop working and take cover, it added.
In Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, a Russian attack recorded on Friday in broad daylight injured 12 people, according to local officials.
[Publicidad]