At least 50,000 Russian military troops have been killed on the battlefield since President Vladimir Putin launched the war against Ukraine in February 2022, along with another 20,000 mercenaries recruited by the Wagner Group and other private security firms, a new survey said Monday.

Combined with the number of those who were wounded in action, British military officials estimate Russia has sustained between 290,000 and 350,000 casualties so far, according to their latest intelligence assessment of the battlefield.

“Even among Russian officials, there is likely a low level of understanding about total casualty figures because of a long-established culture of dishonest reporting within the military,” U.K. military officials said Monday in a post on social media.

On Dec. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree increasing the ranks of the Russian military from 2.039 million personnel to 2.209 million, with the total number of combat troops rising from 1.15 million to 1.32 million, the Institute for the Study of War think tank reported Sunday.

On Nov. 9, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Security Council’s deputy chairman, said the military has recruited 410,000 contract, volunteer and conscripted military personnel since Jan. 1, 2023, the ISW said.

The Russian government appears to be ramping up efforts to censor relatives of mobilized military personnel in Ukraine out of concern that protests might impact Mr. Putin‘s widely expected run for another term in next year’s presidential campaign, the ISW said.

Citing a report from the BBC’s Russian service, the ISW said Moscow is accusing the military family members of having connections to imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation.

• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.