U.S. says some 200,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops killed or wounded;

 Ukraine live briefing: 

U.S. says some 200,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops killed or wounded; 

Kyiv advances on Kherson

By Erin Cunningham, Whitney Juckno, Victoria Bisset, Adela Suliman, Dan Lamothe and Adam Taylor 

Updated November 10, 2022 at 10:15 a.m. EST|Published November 10, 2022 at 2:00 a.m. EST

Ukrainian servicemen in the Kherson region fire a 2S7 Pion self-propelled cannon at a Russian position on Wednesday.

U.S. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated that the number of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers killed or wounded since the Feb. 24 invasion is likely to have reached 200,000. “Well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war, and Ukraine has probably suffered a similar number of casualties, Milley told the Economic Club of New York. He added that the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson, announced by Russia Wednesday, could take weeks, and that the winter months may bring an opportunity for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

Ukrainian forces have clawed back 42 Russian-occupied settlements along the “Kherson axis” in southern Ukraine, army chief Valery Zaluzhny said Thursday, a day after Russia announced it would evacuate its troops from the strategic city of Kherson and its surrounding areas. The Washington Post could not immediately verify his claims. Wary of a military trap, Zaluzhny said Ukraine was unable to confirm or deny the “likely” Russian withdrawal from Kherson but called the exit a result of Ukraine’s “active operations” in the area.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

1. Key developments

Ukrainian officials signaled that their forces were treading carefully in Kherson despite Russia’s Wednesday announcement of a withdrawal from the area. An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian troops may have turned Kherson into a “city of death” by planting mines and booby traps as they left. Zaluzhny, the army chief, said the amount of land Ukrainian forces had recovered as of Thursday amounted to around 1,381 square kilometers.

NATO’s secretary general said it was “clear” Russian forces were “coming under heavy pressure” in Kherson, adding that a full Russian withdrawal there would be “another victory for Ukraine.” President Biden said the Russian retreat would allow Moscow and Kyiv to “recalibrate their positions over the winter period” and “decide whether or not they’re going to compromise.” But he added that the United States was not going to force Kyiv to negotiate.

Milley’s estimate of 100,000 killed or injured Russian troops is a sharp increase from the Pentagon’s previous projection of 70,000 and 80,000 in August. The Post has been unable to independently verify the figures, and there is no consensus estimate of how many civilians have been killed in the fighting.

Russia to withdraw its troops from Kherson

2:03

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Nov. 9 that he's withdrawing his troops from the west bank of the Dnieper River near the city of Kherson. (Video: Reuters)

2. Battleground updates

A Russian withdrawal from the Dnieper River’s west bank is likely to prevent Moscow from “achieving its strategic aspiration” of a land bridge reaching the western Ukrainian city of Odessa, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday. It said Russia has destroyed bridges and possibly laid mines to slow the advance of Ukrainian forces, adding that the Russian withdrawal is likely to take several days. The limited bridge access would also leave Russian forces vulnerable in crossing the Dnieper, the ministry added.

Some Russian hard-liners cheered the decision to withdraw from Kherson. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram that Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the commander of Russia’s war in Ukraine, made the “difficult but right choice between senseless sacrifices for the sake of loud statements and saving the priceless lives of soldiers.” Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, also told Russian outlet RIA Novosti that Surovikin “acted like a man who is not afraid of responsibility” by withdrawing with minimal losses.

Russian missile attacks could slow as its troops stockpile weapons to prepare for large-scale assaults, a spokesman for Ukraine’s air force said. Yuri Ignat said Russian forces have likely realized that single strikes were having only a limited impact and were therefore aiming to carry out more significant strikes, according to Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.

3. Global impact

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Group of 20 leaders’ summit scheduled next week in Bali in person, a top Indonesian cabinet minister confirmed Thursday. Russia will instead be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, an Indonesian government spokesman said. News of Lavrov’s attendance was first reported by CNBC Indonesia. The host country has stood firm against calls from Western powers and Kyiv to withdraw its invitation to Putin over the war. Biden and other world leaders are slated to attend the two-day gathering of the world’s largest economies, which starts Nov. 15.

Biden said he hoped that Putin would “be willing to talk more seriously about a prisoner exchange” involving WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S. midterm elections are over. Griner was detained in Russia in February and later sentenced to more than nine years in prison on drug possession charges. She is now being transferred to a Russian penal colony. Biden said Russia has responded to his administration’s offer of a prisoner exchange, but he declined to discuss details.

British sanctions led to the freezing of more than $20 billion in Russian assets between Feb. 22 and Oct. 20 this year, the British government announced Thursday. “We have imposed the most severe sanctions ever on Russia, and it is crippling their war machine,” a British official said.

4. From our correspondents

Ukraine war, Russian energy attacks loom over COP27 climate conference: At the first U.N. Climate Conference since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Ukrainian delegates hope their presence will serve as a stark reminder of the human costs of the war, as well as the consequences of the world’s reliance on fossil fuel producers like Russia, Siobhán O’Grady reports from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The war in Ukraine is a common theme at the conference in discussions on a range of global topics — from migration and food insecurity to climate finance. “If the world goes into a recession, largely linked with the war in Ukraine, that is an issue for everybody, because the resources available to deal with climate change can be squeezed,” said António Vitorino, head of the U.N. migration agency.

The Washington Post