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A Million Casualties for 1% of Territory: UK Slams Russia’s War Narrative
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
The UK government has released a detailed defence and security assessment of the war in Ukraine, with the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard, arguing that Russian battlefield narratives repeatedly collapse when measured against intelligence assessments and operational realities, UK Defence Journal reported on December 22
Speaking in the House, Pollard opened his remarks by framing the war in both human and strategic terms. He noted that Ukrainians are now marking “their 1,394th day of resistance since Putin’s full-scale invasion, and their fourth Christmas of the war.”
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Pollard said the UK’s objective remains securing a just and lasting peace by ensuring Ukraine is placed “in the best possible position on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
He directly challenged Moscow’s public messaging, telling lawmakers that claims of Russian progress “have been exposed as disinformation time and time again.”
According to Pollard, the cost of Russia’s campaign has been staggering, stating that “Russia has suffered over 1 million casualties to gain around 1% of Ukrainian territory since the stabilisation of the frontline in 2022.”
The minister pointed to the prolonged fighting around Pokrovsk as a clear illustration of that imbalance. “In more than a year of fighting for the comparatively small city of Pokrovsk, Russia has advanced only 15 km, equivalent to 40 metres a day,” Pollard said.
He added that despite recent Kremlin announcements, “although Putin claimed to have finally taken that city ahead of the recent visit of the American negotiating team, our defence intelligence assesses that pockets of Ukrainian resistance continue to operate there.”
According to Pollard, these battlefield realities directly shape Ukraine’s diplomatic leverage. “Right across the frontline, it is Ukraine’s continued strength on the battlefield that gives it strength at the negotiating table,” he said.
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He reaffirmed that the UK will “continue to work with our allies to boost that strength and secure the credible security guarantees needed to underpin a just and lasting peace.”
Placing the war in a broader strategic context, Pollard warned that its implications extend well beyond Ukraine.
“As we approach the fifth year of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion, this Government are in no doubt that the frontline of UK and European security continues to run through Ukraine,” he told the House.
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He contrasted the current moment with conditions a year earlier, saying that “twelve months ago, there was no clear route to ending the war,” while “today, the US-initiated peace process represents the brightest path towards securing a just and lasting peace that we have seen since the start of the full-scale invasion.”
To support that effort, Pollard confirmed that military planning is being intensified. “The Defence Secretary directed military chiefs this week to review and update the Multinational Force Ukraine military plans, so that we are ready to deploy when peace comes,” he said.
This work includes “revising and raising readiness levels as we continue to work with allies to maximise pressure on Putin’s war machine, to strengthen Ukraine’s hand on the battlefield and to grow its defence industrial base.”
Earlier, reports emerged that Russian forces were conducting what analysts describe as a “new cognitive warfare campaign” by launching limited cross-border attacks in Ukraine’s Sumy and Kharkiv regions, likely aimed at shaping Western perceptions during ongoing peace negotiations rather than achieving battlefield gains.
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-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
