February was officially Russia’s bloodiest month of the war so far

29,000 Number of Russian troops that were killed or wounded in the Ukraine war – just in the month of February alone

RUSSIA has suffered its bloodiest month since the war began, British military intelligence says, as its forces made gains in high risk attacks on the frontline.

Russian forces have pushed back Ukrainian soldiers along the frontline but at a massive price, with 29,000 men killed or wounded in February alone.

On Sunday, Russian soldiers were said to be moving towards Chasiv Yar, a town seven miles west of Bakhmut.

“The increase in the daily average almost certainly reflects Russia’s commitment to mass and attritional warfare,” the British Ministry of Defence said.

Data showed that 355,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine two years ago. In the past four months, its army has sustained an average of 936 casualties every day, four or five times higher than its losses at the start of the war. The Kremlin launched a full-frontal attack against Avdiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in November, eventually capturing the destroyed town in mid-february.

“Although costly in terms of human life, the resulting effect has increased pressure on Ukraine’s positions across the frontline,” the British Ministry of Defence said.

Ukrainian soldiers have said that they lacked the arms to hold off the Russian attacks and described a chaotic retreat from Avdiivka. One Ukrainian soldier said Russian officers appeared to have no regard for their men.

“Russia sent in inexperienced troops in waves each morning, afternoon and evening. They appeared to be in their 40s or 50s, with no protective vests or helmets,” he told The Washington Post.

Russian military bloggers said that there was now heavy fighting along the entire frontline which has moved several miles west of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, the town captured by Wagner mercenaries in May last year.

Rybar, a channel linked to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, said that Russian forces were advancing, although blundering commanders were still sending infantry to attack armoured vehicles without grenade launchers and drawing “maps based on beautiful video reports”.

In southern Ukraine, rescue workers in Odesa continued to pick through the rubble of an apartment block destroyed by a drone on Saturday morning.

In what appears to have been the deadliest attack of the war in Odesa, city officials said that at least 11 people had been killed and that four people were still missing.