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How Does the U.S. Intel Community Accurately Estimate Russian Losses?
Newly declassified U.S. intelligence indicates Russia has suffered some shocking losses in Putin’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine.
The release of this declassified assessment to Congress yesterday coincided with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit with U.S. lawmakers and with President Biden.
In fact, it was the Biden administration who declassified it in the hopes of persuading Congress to continue funding Ukraine’s defense.
The message here is “Look, our Ukraine aid is having a very real impact on Russia.”
If you follow Ukraine War news, then you’ve likely seen the headline already: Russia has lost 315,000 troops, or roughly 90% of their pre-invasion force!
Russia has also lost a staggering number of tanks and armored vehicles — with 2,200 tanks destroyed out of a force of 3,500 and one-third of its armored vehicles knocked out of action.
Just since October, with Russia’s attempted offensive near Avdiivka, Russia has lost 13,000 troops and more than 220 Russian combat vehicles — the equivalent of six battalions’ worth of vehicles.
The report went further saying that these losses likely set Russian military modernization efforts back at least fifteen years.
