Russia has sustained its one and a half millionth military casualty since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with half a million of those confirmed dead, the Chief of the Defence Staff has said.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said the figure, drawn from Ukrainian General Staff data published on Wednesday, marks a grim milestone highlighting the vast cost and enormous impact of what he called President Putin’s frankly flawed decision to invade.

The proportion killed was confirmed by defence intelligence. “Amongst that one and a half million, defence intelligence have confirmed that 500,000, that is half a million, are dead,” he said.

What that number represents was something he chose to spell out, saying “That means half a million photographs hanging on the walls in devastated, darkened homes around Russia. That means half a million families who will never see their father, their son, their brother, or husband again.”

Of the one and a half million, 1.4 million have been sustained since January 2023 in order to gain just two per cent of Ukraine’s territory.

“I think these numbers illustrate clearly the senseless and futile waste of human life for such little progress, and against such an illegitimate aim of President Putin,” he said.

The Chief of the Defence Staff was careful to separate the Russian state from the Russian population, echoing the Defence Secretary’s statement to the Commons the previous day that Britain has no quarrel with the Russian people. He could not echo those comments more loudly, he said. The purpose was to highlight the cost to Russia and its people of Putin’s decisions, “but we by no means celebrate those costs”.

He named the people bearing them, saying Britain is no more keen to see the Russian population continue to carry the cost of the war than “the beleaguered Belgorod small business owner, or the petrified recruit press gangs in St Petersburg, or the terrified Muscovite family seeing their parent, partner, or child rushed to the front line”.

Putin could end the illegal war tomorrow and stop the killing, he said, and for as long as he continues to fight, Britain will stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, as the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary have both said.