KYIV, Ukraine — The number of Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine has topped 1 million, military officials in Kyiv said Thursday, describing the huge price that Moscow has paid for its 3-year-old invasion.

The claim by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which came on a holiday celebrating Russia’s sovereignty, is in line with Western intelligence estimates.

President Vladimir Putin marked Russia Day by hosting a Kremlin meeting with soldiers decorated for their service in Ukraine, but neither he nor any other officials commented on the Ukrainian claim.

The U.K. Defense Ministry said in a statement posted Thursday on X that Russia has suffered over 1 million casualties, including roughly 250,000 killed since it launched the full-scale invasion Feb. 24, 2022.

On June 3, the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington said Russia likely would hit the mark of 1 million casualties this summer in what it called “a stunning and grisly milestone.”

Russia last reported its military casualties early in the war when it acknowledged that about 6,000 soldiers had been killed. Earlier this year, the General Staff of the Russian armed forces claimed that Ukrainian military losses had topped 1 million.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last spoke of Ukrainian military losses in February, when he said 45,100 troops had been killed and about 390,000 injured.

The mutual claims of the other side’s losses couldn’t be independently verified.

The casualty estimates came as Russian forces pummeled Ukraine with drones and other weapons, killing three people and injuring scores of others.

According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia sent 63 drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. It said air defenses destroyed 28 and jammed 21.

Ukrainian police said two people were killed and six injured in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive. One person was killed and 14 were injured in the southern Kherson region, which is partly occupied by Russian forces, police said.

Authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said 18 people, including four children, were injured by Russian drone attacks overnight that targeted residential areas and other civilian infrastructure.

Russia has launched waves of drones and missiles in recent days, with a record bombardment of almost 500 drones on Monday and 315 drones and seven missiles overnight on Tuesday.

Ukraine responded to the Russian attacks with drone raids. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed 52 Ukrainian drones early Thursday, including 41 over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a 2-year-old boy was killed Thursday in a Ukrainian drone attack, which also injured his grandmother.

The drone attacks and Russian pushes at the front have continued despite discussions of a potential ceasefire in the war.