UK intel: Russian dead in Ukraine pass 500,000; army chief decries 'wasteful' losses

British intelligence now assesses Russian military deaths in Ukraine have surpassed 500,000, a milestone that underscores the attritional nature of the conflict. The head of the British army publicly characterized the losses as a 'wasteful and useless squandering of human lives' for a territorial gain of only about 2%, signaling a hardening Western narrative on Russian costs. The figure is an estimate and not independently verifiable, but it aligns with a trend of mounting Russian casualties reported by Western sources.