Russia-Ukraine War, LIVE: The US says there are already more than 100,000 Putin soldiers killed or wounded in the conflict

100,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war

“There are more than 100,000 Russian soldiers dead and wounded,” Mark Milley, US chief of staff, told the New York Economic Club last night.

“Probably the same on the Ukrainian side,” the military said. These are the most accurate figures to date offered by the US government more than eight months into the war.

This estimate has not yet been independently confirmed. Milley added that there is an opportunity for dialogue to end the war and that military victory may not be possible for Russia or even Ukraine, according to the AFP agency.

Ukraine has reported Russian casualties since the beginning of the war

Three dead and 12 wounded in Donetsk

In the past 24 hours, Russian forces have killed three civilians and injured 12 in Donetsk oblast, excluding Mariupol and Volnovakha, according to the oblast’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.

The bodies of five other people killed by Russian troops during the occupation were discovered in the village of Yarova, according to Kyrylenko.

Biden hopes Putin will negotiate the release of basketball player Griner

President Joe Biden has expressed confidence that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, will demonstrate greater readiness to negotiate the release of basketball player Brittney Griner now that the US mid-term elections are over.

“My hope is that now that the elections are over, Putin can talk to us and we will be willing to talk more seriously about a prisoner swap,” Biden said at a news conference.

The US president spoke hours after Griner’s lawyers revealed that the athlete was sent to a penal colony to serve a sentence for drug possession.