Nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine war, Britain says

World Nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine war, British intelligence agency says By Ramy Inocencio Ramy Inocencio Correspondent Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in London, covering Europe and the Middle East. He joined the Network in 2019 as CBS News' Asia correspondent, based in Beijing and reporting across the Asia-Pacific, bringing two decades of experience working and traveling between Asia and the United States. Read Full Bio Ramy Inocencio May 28, 2026 / 3:17 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google New intelligence shows that nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to Anne Keast-Butler, the new head of the United Kingdom's communications and cyber spy agency. "As we remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine, Putin is going backwards on the battlefield, with new intelligence showing that almost half a million Russian soldiers have been killed since the conflict began," Keast-Butler said Thursday. Keast-Butler is the director of the Government Communications Headquarters, one of Britain's three main intelligence agencies. The GCHQ figure is the highest on-the-record estimate of Russian military deaths to come from any government since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have released their own data on war casualties. "The 500,000 estimate is a higher figure than the UK's Defence Intelligence estimate has previously quoted," said Michael Clarke, former Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute, a security and defense-focused think tank. Clarke has been tracking the tactical progression of the war. "But this should now be regarded as an official estimate given its source."He added that the number of Russian dead "might well be higher" because "they are so neglectful of their front line wounded." He noted that "a high proportion of them are non-Russian and alm...