\n<\/p>\n
Vladimir Putin <\/a>has been accused of having a \u201cblatant disregard\u201d for his own troops amid estimates that Russia<\/a> is approaching a million casualties in the Ukraine<\/a> war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Ukrainian General Staff has suggested that Russia has suffered approximately 980,000 troop casualties (killed and wounded) since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite initial ambitions to seize the whole of Ukraine, and its sky-high losses, Putin currently holds just 18% of Ukraine\u2019s land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The US-based think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)<\/a>, has now predicted<\/a> that Russia will exceed the one million casualty mark by this summer, which it called a \u201cstunning and grizzly milestone\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to the think tank, Moscow has accumulated roughly five times the fatalities in the current conflict as in all Russian and Soviet wars combined the end of World War 2 and the start of Putin\u2019s invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It also estimated that around 250,000 Russian soldiers have already died in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CSIS<\/a> said this is \u201ca sign of Putin\u2019s blatant disregard for his soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But many of those Russian losses in Ukraine are not expected to be linked to the elites in Moscow who prop up Putin\u2019s authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMany of the soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine are from Russia\u2019s Far North, Far East, and prisons\u2014and are not the children of Moscow and St Petersburg elites,\u201d the CSIS said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPutin likely considers these types of soldiers more expendable and less likely to undermine his domestic political support base.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The think tank claimed Russia is advancing just 50 metres per day in some areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CSIS said: \u201cRussia has paid an extraordinary blood price for seizing less than 1 percent of Ukrainian territory since January 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The experts also dismantled US president Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>previous claim<\/a> that Putin \u201cholds all the cards<\/a>\u201d in the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n CSIS said: \u201cMoscow does not hold all, or even most, of the cards.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It claimed Russia has two major weaknesses which can be exploited: the economy, which is struggling under the weight of the conflict, and the \u201cblood cost of a protracted war, particularly if it erodes Putin\u2019s political support base.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ukraine also stunned the international community, including its allies, by launching a huge drone attack on Russian bombers over the weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, Trump has been trying to negotiate an end to the war \u2013 even if it means concluding the conflict on Russia\u2019s terms, meaning Ukraine would have to give up further occupied land. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Putin has been dragging his feet though and refusing to agree to end a ceasefire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n