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Putin has now lost 250,000 troops who have been killed, injured or gone missing since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ben Wallace claims
A quarter of a million Russian troops have been killed, injured or are marked missing following Vladimir Putin‘s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Ben Wallace said yesterday.
The outgoing Defence Secretary was asked whether he believed the outcome of the war would see Moscow’s forces leaving all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.
He told the Tony Blair Institute’s Future of Britain conference: ‘I think it is winnable.
‘I think Russia is much more fragile than the Russians want to admit, for sure.’
Mr Wallace, speaking as the two sides traded a series of drone blows in the wake of the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, added: ‘If you look at the generals being fired, you look at Prigozhin – if anyone predicted last year that Prigozhin was going to march on Moscow, General Surovikin who is currently resting in Moscow at the moment – he’s one of their most capable generals.
A Ukrainian drone drops bombs at a Russian armuored vehicle in Ukraine
A part of a Russian cruise missile Kalibr is seen inside a building damaged in Odesa
‘So the splinter in the hierarchy of the Russian army is very real and the casualty rates are horrendous. It would not be wrong to say at least 230,000 to 250,000 dead or injured Russians.’
Mr Wallace compared that with the 15,000 Russian troops killed in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989, saying: ‘That is the mindset of Putin.’
The minister has revealed he will resign at the next Cabinet reshuffle after four years at the Ministry of Defence.
His comments yesterday came as Ukraine said its forces had shot down Russian drones and cruise missiles targeting the Black Sea port of Odesa in what Moscow admitted was retaliation for an attack that damaged the bridge to the Crimean peninsula.
The Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defences by firing 25 exploding drones and then targeted Odesa with six Kalibr cruise missiles, Kyiv’s southern command claimed.
It added that all six missiles and the drones were shot down by air defences in the Odesa region and other areas in the south.
But it admitted their debris and shockwaves damaged some port facilities and a few residential buildings as well as injuring an elderly man at his home.
A quarter of a million Russian troops have been killed, injured or are marked missing following Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, Ben Wallace (pictured) said yesterday
The Russian defence ministry said its ‘strike of retribution’ was carried out with sea-launched precision weapons on Ukrainian military facilities near Odesa and Mykolaiv, a coastal city about 30 miles to the north east. Moscow insisted the blitz had destroyed facilities preparing ‘terror attacks’ against Russia involving maritime drones.
These allegedly included a facility at a shipyard that was producing them as well as striking fuel depots near the two cities.
It was not possible to verify the conflicting reports.
Putin blamed Ukraine on Monday for striking the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia with Crimea and was attacked in October last year needing months of repairs. The crossing is a key supply route for the peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Ukraine officials stopped short of directly taking responsibility, as they have done in similar strikes before, but Kyiv’s top security agency appeared tacitly to admit to a role.
The onslaught came a day after Moscow broke off a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship vital grain supplies from Odesa.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov alleged that the shipping lanes and routes used for the grain transport under the agreement were abused by Ukraine.
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