Vladimir Putin’s losses in Ukraine have climbed to shocking new heights, according to the latest figures from Kyiv.

Ukraine’s defence ministry revealed on November 5 that Moscow has accumulated approximately 701,650 casualties since invading its European neighbour in February 2022.

This staggering number comes down to a surge in Russian losses in recent months, according to Kyiv, as October saw an average of 1,307 casualties per day.

It comes after UK prime minister Keir Starmer used his first speech to the United Nations security council in New York to accuse the Russian president of treating his own citizens as “bits of meat to flight into the meat grinder”.

However, according to Bloomberg, this savage tactic is giving Putin an advantage on the frontline.

Moscow seized more territory (around 1,146 sq km) over the last week of October than in any other point in 2024.

The outlet also claimed around two-thirds of Ukrainians now favour peace talks with Russia.

As the UK’s ministry of defence (MoD) claimed on Tuesday: “Russia continues to prioritise the southern Donetsk frontlines maintaining favourable force ratios in this sector, which party explains the increased pace of Russian advances.

“Despite heavy personnel losses, Russia continues to recruit in high numbers to sustain its operations in southern Ukraine.”

Still, Putin’s unorthodox methods have created tensions back home.

While all eligible Russian men under the age of 30 have to serve one year of military service, Putin promised in March 2022 – shortly after invading Ukraine – that conscripts would not be used on the frontline. 

But, according to the MoD, conscripts were deployed on operations in Kursk in August 2024, the Russian region which Ukrainian troops seized and occupied in the summer.

There’s been significant pushback from the Russian public, with more than 12,000 people signing an online petition asking for the conscripts to be removed from Kursk, while female relatives have also mobilised to protest against the move.

Moscow has labelled those protesting as “foreign agents”.

Putin is now thought to be relying on the 10,000 North Korean troops believed to have been sent to Russia as part of the countries’ military cooperation agreement.

But UK intelligence MoD warned last week that North Korean and Russian troops would “almost certainly experience interoperability difficulties having not previously carried out joint military exercises”.

The MoD added: ”[North Korean] troops conducting combat operations would almost certainly have issues operating Russian equipment, integrating into Russia’s command and control structure, and working around the language barrier with Russian forces.”

Ukrainian officials also believe Moscow has lost 9,208 tanks, 20,150 artillery systems, 996 air defence systems and 18,309 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).