The death toll in Russia’s war against Ukraine is reaching alarming new heights. About a million soldiers and civilians on both sides have been killed or wounded, according to a recent in-depth review of available data released by the The Wall Street Journal find. As Russia attempts to secure key cities in the Donbas region, the war of attrition along the front line has become extremely violent as the United States increases its weapons production to arm Ukraine.

Despite months of brutal trench warfare and a Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory in August, no end to the conflict is in sight more than two and a half years after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a lightning invasion in a failed attempt to overthrow kyiv. The U.S. military is currently building new manufacturing facilities to increase production of 155-millimeter artillery ammunition to meet demand from the Ukrainian side without depleting its own stocks.

The past few months have been particularly deadly for Ukrainian civilians, as Russia attempted to expand its control over eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian forces deployed drones to strike targets deep within Russia. At least 3,200 Ukrainian civilians were killed or injured between June and August 2024, an increase of almost 34% compared to the same period last year, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

“We are seeing an expansion of the conflict, both geographically and in terms of the frequency and intensity of attacks,” Joachim Giaminardi, NRC advocacy manager in Ukraine, said recently. Al Jazeera. “Those who pay the price are civilians. »

Meanwhile, US officials told the New York Times This September has been the most violent month of the war for the Russian army so far. Reflecting Russia’s “meat grinder” tactics in the trenches, casualties remain highest among Russian soldiers, many of whom are mandatory conscripts and new recruits. The United States and Ukraine say the Russian military suffered 600,000 casualties in early October, including 115,000 killed and 500,000 wounded in combat. On Monday, Ukrainian authorities released new data showing a total of more than 680,000 Russian casualties.

American authorities estimate that 57,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 250,000 wounded since the start of the war. Citing a confidential source in Ukraine, the The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 80,000 people had been killed and 400,000 injured, but a Ukrainian lawmaker called the data “exaggerated.”

White House national security spokesman Admiral John Kirby told reporters Monday that 1,200 Russian troops are killed or wounded every day in the trenches and battlefields of the Donbas region, calling the losses suffered by Putin’s army “truly historic”. September has been the deadliest month for Russian soldiers so far, according to U.S. and British estimates.

Kirby was responding to South Korean intelligence reports that Russia’s ally, North Korea, was sending an unspecified number of troops to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the United States has “evidence” of the presence of North Korean troops on the ground.

Despite the large number of Russian casualties, the war was fought largely on Ukrainian soil. Russia regularly terrorizes civilians and Ukraine’s energy grid by striking key infrastructure and populated areas far behind the front lines, including apartment buildings, and striking a children’s hospital this summer. In June, Ukrainian leaders said the “Russian occupiers” had claimed the lives of 12,000 civilians, including 551 children.

THE The Wall Street Journal found that three times as many people died in Ukraine as were born in the first six months of 2024. Observers have long warned that Ukraine faces a demographic crisis due to casualties from war and great number of refugees who fled to other countries.

As the death toll rises, so does the animosity as the war approaches its 1,000th day. Ukrainian military intelligence said Tuesday that a senior Russian air force officer was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in Russia, the apparent work of Ukrainian spies. The officer, Colonel Dmitry Golenkov, is accused of a 2022 airstrike on a Ukrainian shopping center that left 22 people dead and dozens injured. Golenkov was “eliminated” by the “hammer of justice,” intelligence officials said.

Separately, three people, including a child, were killed Tuesday by a Russian drone strike on a civilian area in the city of Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine.

In the Donbas region, fierce trench warfare along the front lines requires a huge amount of artillery and ammunition. The Pentagon is currently spending billions of dollars to expand its 155mm artillery shell production facilities in an effort to replenish Ukrainian stockpiles while ensuring the United States has enough ammunition in case its military is drawn into conflict, such as Israel’s intensely violent multi-front war. spreading across the Middle East. The goal is to increase manufacturing and produce 100,000 artillery shells per month, Defense News reported earlier this month.

“Part of that is due to things like the brand new factory we opened in Mesquite, Texas, a few months ago,” Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said at a news conference. last month. “We have a new loading, assembly and packaging facility in Camden, Arkansas that will be opening very soon.”

Artillery shells are only one element of Ukraine’s arsenal. The Ukrainians are developing their own weapons, such as advanced drones, but in the face of the size of the Russian army, Ukraine’s defenders are largely dependent on weapons transferred from the United States and Western Europe. Between his visit to the United States last month and other calls, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is constantly pushing the United States and its NATO allies, such as Britain and Germany, to acquire more advanced weapons as Russia gains ground in the east.

After numerous exchanges with Zelensky, in April the Biden administration secretly sent long-range missile systems known as ATACMS to Ukraine, capable of striking targets up to 200 miles away. Ukraine has used the weapons to strike behind enemy lines and in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine wants to use the missiles against targets deep inside Russia, but allies in Europe are divided, as some fear that such a strike against Russia with Western-made weapons risks a disastrous escalation.

While President Biden appears open to the idea of ​​giving Ukraine the green light to strike Russia with ATACMS, he said “no consensus” on the issue could be reached after a meeting with his German counterpart in Berlin last week. Germany, which has closer ties to Russia than the United States, has so far refrained from sending its own long-range missile systems to Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a surprise visit to kyiv on Monday to announce the latest approved U.S. military aid package for Ukraine: $400 million worth of 155-millimeter artillery shells and tank ammunition, Javelin anti-tank missiles and HIMARS rocket launchers. The White House approved a similar package of $425 million last week.

The Biden administration has committed more than $60 billion in “security assistance” to Ukraine since taking office, according to the Defense Department.