Putin's cold-bloodedness irritates ex-US general - "I don't know how he can stand it" Russia is recording successes on the Ukraine front – with heavy losses. In the four-month battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka alone, Putin's forces are said to have sacrificed more fighters than in the Soviet Union's ten-year Afghanistan campaign.
Western intelligence agencies estimate that between 300,000 and 400,000 soldiers have lost their lives or become incapacitated since Russia's war of aggression began.