Russia’s military personnel losses in its invasion of Ukraine have crossed 300,000, showed estimates by the UK that also said thousands more have deserted the battlefield. James Heappey, minister of state for the armed forces, revealed the UK’s estimates of losses faced by Vladimir Putin since the start of the invasion in February last year. “We estimate that approximately 302,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands more have already deserted since the start of the conflict,” he said on Tuesday in response to queries from John Healey, the shadow secretary of state for defence. The UK’s estimate of casualties is similar to the assessment made by Kyiv, that said Russia had lost a total 313,470 military personnel in combat as of Tuesday. It comes as two Russian state media agencies withdrew reports of military operations. The agencies – TASS and RIA Novosti – said that the Russian Ministry of Defence had announced relocations of troops to an unspecified “more advantageous positions” east of the Dnipro river. The potentially significant bulletins were available for about 10 minutes, after which two state news outlets withdrew them without any follow-up. Read More Why Russia retracted state media reports on its Ukraine frontline movements Giuliani ally in Ukraine charged with treason Russian convicted of Kremlin critic’s murder pardoned after fighting in Ukraine A man convicted in the 2006 killing of a Russian journalist wins a pardon after serving in Ukraine