Kiev says Russian war losses now at more than 50,000 soldiers

The Russian army has lost more than 50,000 soldiers in more than six months of war in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian figures.

With the invasion now 195 days old, 50,150 Russian soldiers have been killed, the Ukrainian general staff announced via Facebook on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian army claims to have already destroyed 2,077 tanks, 4,484 armoured vehicles, 236 aircraft and 207 helicopters.

There is no independent confirmation of the figures.

The British Ministry of Defence, on the other hand, estimates that only about 25,000 Russian soldiers have been killed.

Russia itself has not given any information on its own casualties for a long time.

Last Friday, the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk put their losses since the start of the invasion at just more than 2,900 dead. In contrast, according to the rarely released Kiev figures on their own losses, there were about 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed and 7,000 missing, they said.

Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February and has since taken control of large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

The United Nations has so far registered more than 5,700 civilians killed, but, like Kiev, assumes a much higher number of civilian casualties.

The Donetsk separatists last quoted a figure of around 870 civilian deaths in their area.

The British Ministry of Defence also said that a shortage of reconnaissance drones is increasingly complicating the operations of Russia's troops in Ukraine.

"In the face of combat losses, it is likely that Russia is struggling to maintain stocks of UAVs [uncrewed aerial vehicles, or drones], exacerbated by component shortages resulting from international sanctions," it wrote on Twitter on Tuesday in its daily update on the Ukraine war.

"The limited availability of reconnaissance UAVs is likely degrading commanders' tactical situational awareness and increasingly hampering Russian operations," it said.

Russia has increasingly relied on drones in recent years, especially to spot targets for artillery. But these are vulnerable to being shot down and to electronic jamming, the report said. In recent days, the number of drone missions west of the Dnipro River has decreased. There have also been reports of several drones being shot down.

The British government has regularly published intelligence information on the course of the war. Moscow accuses London of a targeted disinformation campaign.