US intelligence: Russia has losses on the scale of the pre-war army
Estimates of Russian casualties in Ukraine have long differed widely. After London recently cited a six-figure figure, US intelligence agencies have now come to a similar assessment. Their conclusion: there is not much left of the troops that Putin sent into the war in 2022.
US intelligence agencies estimate that a total of 315,000 Russian soldiers have been injured or killed since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022. According to parliamentary circles in Washington, citing declassified documents from the services, this corresponds to 87% of the armed forces, which numbered 360,000 soldiers before the war. The Russian army had also lost 2,200 of its 3,500 tanks before the start of the war. The independent analysis portal Oryx estimates the losses of Russian tanks to be even higher.
The information became public at the same time as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi visited Washington to ask for further US military aid in the war against Russia. Citing the documents, theWall Street Journal reported that the war had set the Russian armed forces back 15 years in their modernization efforts. On the battlefield, however, the Kremlin troops have recently been able to achieve successes again.
British estimate similarly high
The British Ministry of Defense recently estimated the number of Russians killed at around 70,000. This figure includes 50,000 regular soldiers and 20,000 members of the Wagner private army, the Ministry of Defense announced at the beginning of December. The founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash, had himself once put the number of mercenaries killed in the fighting around Bachmut in eastern Ukraine at 20,000. By the end of November, London estimated the number of wounded at 180,000 to 240,000 soldiers and 40,000 Wagner fighters.
"This gives a total estimated range of 290,000 to 350,000 casualties among Russian combatants. The median estimate is a total of 320,000 Russian casualties," it continued.
Washington is Kiev's most important supporter in the war against the Russian invasion forces. Last week, however, the opposition US Republicans rejected US President Joe Biden's request for further financial aid of 61.4 billion dollars for Ukraine for the time being. In the coming months, Kiev will need numerous weapons, including those that have not yet been delivered, and an enormous amount of ammunition.
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Despite the significant casualties, recent military successes have been reported by Russian forces in their ongoing attack on Ukraine. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing declassified documents, these successes have set back Russia's modernization efforts by 15 years. Meanwhile, in the USA, estimates suggest that over 315,000 Russian soldiers have been injured or killed since the beginning of the war in February 2022, which equates to approximately 87% of their pre-war military force. This high casualty count has led some to compare the situation to Russia's losses during World War II. Conversely, Russian President Vladimir Putin's ally, Volodymyr Selensky, has visited Washington to request further US military aid in the face of these ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.
Source: www.ntv.de
