Nearly half a million Russians killed in Ukraine war, UK spy chief says

Anne Keast-Butler says Russian forces are ‘going backwards on the battlefield’ for first time since late 2022

Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from the head of the British spy agency GCHQ.

Anne Keast-Butler, the chief of the electronic intelligence agency, said in her first speech in the job that Russian forces were “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022.