Putin's war has left half a million Russians disabled as the Ukraine invasion takes a heavy toll on the country, officials figures suggest.

New welfare statistics suggest that hundreds of thousands of men have been left wounded as Russian chiefs hide the death toll.

In May 2022, Putin changed laws to ensure that people aged 40 and over could enlist in the armed forces.

The Russian president then raised the age again by 10 years in July last year.

Moscow figures cited in a Nato intelligence briefing show a 30 per cent rise in men registered as disabled in the year after the invasion in February 2022.

A senior Nato chief said: "Just according to Russian pension statistics alone, from 2022 to 2023 the number of men aged 31 to 59 with disabilities increased by 30 per cent, or by 507,000."

The Russian frontline death toll is estimated to be between 66,000 and 88,000 men, according to independent Russian media organisations and the US.

President Zelensky confirmed that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

Vladimir Putin has Britain in his crosshairs as expert warns UK army has 'never been so weak'Russian oil refinery smashed by drone as Kyiv looks to devastate Putin's incomePutin war factory DESTROYED as entire building bursts into fireball after Ukraine attack

The Nato briefing also claimed that aerial assaults by Ukraine had reduced Russia’s oil-refining capabilities by 10 per cent.

Despite ammunition shortages, Ukraine has heightened attacks by drones to strike refinery and energy targets inside Russia.

"They’re imposing a financial cost on Russia, and they’re impacting the ­domestic fuel market. We’ve seen a significant increase in gasoline imports from Belarus in March," the Nato official told The Times.

"In terms of damage, the strikes have probably disrupted more than 10 per cent of Russia’s refinery capacity, maybe more than 15 per cent."

Nato chiefs have warned that the situation in Ukraine is still pessimistic, with some suggesting that a Russian breakthrough is ­increasingly likely.

It comes as supporters of Donald Trump continue to block $60 billion in US aid which should have been paid in December.

The official said: "The situation remains unstable, with Ukrainian shortages of personnel and munitions likely limiting their ability to hold positions. The thing that I worry about is, it’s not just that we know that, it’s that Russia knows that.

"So Russia is using drones and missiles in ways that are really explicitly designed to deplete Ukrainian air defence systems. And as they deplete those air ­defence systems, that gives Russia more opportunities."