Russia-Ukraine war: 100,000 Russian soldiers killed & wounded, says US Army Gen Milley

Russia has had an estimated 100,000 military casualties, while the Ukrainian side has also lost a similar number of soldiers since the war ensued in February, Gen Mark A Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at an event in New York, the American broadcasters reported. He put the civilian casualties at 40,000 in Ukraine, adding that as many as 30 million have been displaced in the ongoing conflict.

“You’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded. Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side. A lot of human suffering,” Milley added at the event, during an address.

'Negotiate when peace can be achieved:' US Army Gen Mark Milley

Biden’s senior military adviser lamented the tremendous amount of suffering inflicted on both sides in the nine-month-old Russia-Ukraine war. Milley was asked about the prospects of negotiating a truce, and he responded, by saying, that the refusal to negotiate in the initial phases of World War I by the countries, eventually led to a broader conflict that flared and caused millions of casualties and widespread damage. He also noted that an estimated 15 million to 30 million Ukrainians have turned into refugees.

“So when there’s an opportunity to negotiate when peace can be achieved … seize the moment,” US Army General Milley said at the Economic Club of New York in his most public statement, suggesting talks instead of war. 

Milley's remarks came as Russia announced a pull out of its troops from the west of the Dnieper River in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson that Moscow annexed among four other Ukrainian territories. US President Joe Biden said that Russian soldiers retreating from Kherson implies that eight months into the war has caused Russia some “real problems.” On the contrary, US Army Gen Mark Milley refused from overemphasizing a Russian defeat, instead suggesting it may be too soon to make such claims. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also assumed a similar tone, and warned his armed forces, saying that "the enemy [Russian troops] do not bring us gifts, do not make ‘gestures of goodwill'". Although the embattled leader of the war-torn nation acknowledged that any gain in course of the military conflict comes at the cost of “lives lost by our heroes," referring to the soldiers.