In just five months of fighting in Ukraine, more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 80,000 have been injured, according to US intelligence officials.

According to John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, the majority of the soldiers were killed in horrific trench combat for the little eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has frequently claimed it was on the verge of conquering.

"Russia's offensive in the Donbas, commanded mostly by Bakhmut, has failed… No terrain that is actually important from a strategic standpoint has been taken by Russia, according to Kirby.

The fatalities "overshadow some of the bloodiest allied battles of the Second World War and represent a significant increase in Russian casualties even from the bloody first days of the war," Kirby added.

The AP quoted Kirby as stating, "It's three times the number of killed in action that the United States faced on the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II."

Kirby would not go into specifics about how the US assessed the fatalities, but he did state that around half of them were Wagner mercenaries rather than Russian soldiers.

He said that they were being thrown into the fight without the necessary leadership or training.

Bakhmut City

An area of Bakhmut is still being held by Ukrainian soldiers. The commander of the ground forces, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated on Monday that "the situation is quite difficult," but Ukrainian soldiers are still launching counterattacks against Russians.

A route leading west from Bakhmut City is the subject of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It acts as the last essential supply route for Ukrainian forces engaged in ground combat there.

If Bakhmut is captured by Russia, it may open up a passage to larger towns to the west, such as Kramatorsk. Moscow's ferocious push for the shelled-out wreckage of this provincial town, however, appears more symbolic than strategic after months of significant losses.

This endeavour has cost a terrible, terrible amount of money, especially in Bakhmut. Russia's military resources have been depleted, according to Kirby.

Following their retreat from Kyiv, expulsion from Kherson City in the south, and withdrawal from eastern Kharkiv, Russian forces turned their attention to Bakhmut.

Russian casualties were reported by US sources to have been over 100,000 dead and injured throughout the first eight months of the war, matching the number attained between December and April.