Up to 40,000 Russian soldiers killed, wounded, captured or MIA in Ukraine, NATO estimates

WASHINGTON – NATO estimates that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, injured, captured or gone missing during the first month of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, an alliance official confirmed to NBC News.

Of those, between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian troops have died, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to share NATO’s latest intelligence assessment of the ongoing war.

Russian officials have previously declined to publicly disclose how many of their troops have died while fighting in Ukraine. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that disclosing such figures is the “exclusive prerogative” of Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

“On the numbers, we agreed from the very beginning that we do not have the authority to voice them during the special military operation,” Peskov said, declining to elaborate further.

The Pentagon has previously denied confirming any reported estimates on the number of Russian troops who have been killed or otherwise removed from the battlefield.