Russian forces suffered an average of around 1,500 dead and wounded a day in Ukraine during October, according to the UK’s chief of defense staff.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the BBC the Russian people were paying an “extraordinary price” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, saying October was the worst month for casualties since the conflict began in February 2022.

“Russia is about to suffer 700,000 people killed or injured – the enormous pain and suffering the Russian nation has to endure because of Putin’s ambition,” he told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.

He said that while Russia was making gains and putting pressure on Ukraine, the losses were “for small areas of land”.

The cost of the war, which he put at more than 40 percent of public spending on defense and security, is also “a huge drain” on Russia.

A view from a drone showing a destroyed Russian armored vehicle in part of a forest where the hottest phase of the war is taking place on November 9, 2024. The forest is located about 8 kilometers southwest of Kreminna in the Luhansk region , Ukraine

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin (pictured) told the BBC the Russian people were paying an “extraordinary price” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, saying October was the worst month for casualties since the conflict began in February 2022.

Putin’s forces (pictured) averaged around 1,500 dead and wounded a day in Ukraine in October, according to Sir Tony

With the election of US President-elect Donald Trump casting doubt on US support for Ukraine, Sir Tony said Western allies would stand by them “as long as it takes”.

“This is the message that President Putin needs to absorb and reassurance for President Zelensky,” he said.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Sir Tony said the growing threat from authoritarian states including Russia, North Korea and the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen was putting the international community “under immense pressure”.

“This is a new era of competition and competition that will last for decades and has the potential to disrupt our economy and security more than anything Britain has experienced in modern times,” he wrote.

This comes just two weeks after NATO leadership said Putin had lost more than 600,000 troops in Ukraine, forcing him to rely increasingly on foreign support for his invasion.

Secretary General of the military bloc Mark Rutte said that following heavy losses, North Korean troops were sent to Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that North Korea is training 10,000 soldiers to support Russia.

A file photo shows Ukrainian soldiers installing anti-tank mines and unexploded obstacles along the front line at an undisclosed location near Khasiv Yar, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on October 30, 2024

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (pictured) has claimed that North Korea is training 10,000 soldiers to support Russia

“Deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Rutte told reporters after NATO officials and diplomats received a briefing from a South Korean delegation. .

Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion into Kursk in August and remain in the region.

Rutte said the North Korean deployment represented a “significant escalation” of Pyongyang’s involvement in “Russia’s illegal war” in Ukraine, a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a “dangerous extension” of the war.

Rutte said the deployment of North Korean troops was a sign of “growing desperation” on Putin’s part.

“More than 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war, and he cannot sustain his attack on Ukraine without foreign support,” Rutte said.