Hundreds of thousands of victims
US Secret Service: Russia loses almost entire pre-war army
December 12, 2023, 11:41 p.m
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Estimates of Russian casualties in Ukraine have long varied widely. After London recently gave a high six-figure number, US secret services have now come to a similar assessment. Their result: There is not much left of the troops that Putin sent to 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 Ukraine war in February 2022. Parliamentary circles in Washington said, citing released documents from the services, that this corresponds to 87 percent of the armed forces, which numbered 360,000 soldiers before the war. The Russian army also lost 2,200 of its 3,500 tanks before the start of the war. The independent analysis portal Oryx estimates Russian tank losses even a little higher.
The information became public at the same time as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj visited Washington to seek further US military aid in the war against Russia. The “Wall Street Journal” reported, citing the documents, that the war had set the Russian armed forces back 15 years in their modernization efforts. However, the Kremlin troops have recently been able to achieve success again on the battlefield.
British estimate similarly high
The British Ministry of Defense recently estimated the number of Russians killed at around 70,000 Russians. The Ministry of Defense announced at the beginning of December that there were 50,000 regular soldiers and 20,000 members of the Wagner private army. Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has now been killed, once put the number of mercenaries killed in the fighting for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine at 20,000. London estimated the number of wounded by the end of November at 180,000 to 240,000 soldiers and 40,000 Wagner fighters.
“This gives an estimated range of 290,000 to 350,000 total Russian combatant casualties. The midpoint of the estimate is 320,000 total Russian casualties,” it continued.
Washington is Kiev’s main supporter in the war against Russian invading forces. However, the opposition US Republicans initially rejected US President Joe Biden’s request for further financial aid totaling $61.4 billion for Ukraine last week. In the next few months, Kiev will need numerous weapons, including weapons that have not yet been delivered, and an enormous amount of ammunition.