A declassified U.S. intelligence report reveals that Russia has suffered substantial losses in its ongoing conflict in Ukraine. According to the report, cited by Reuters and reported by European Pravda, Russia has lost nearly 90% of the army it had assembled at the start of the invasion in February 2022.
This significant reduction in personnel has set back Russian military modernization by nearly two decades.
Details from the report
The U.S. intelligence assessment estimates that out of the 360,000 troops Russia had at the onset of the full-scale invasion, about 315,000, or approximately 87%, have been killed or wounded.
These staggering losses have compelled the Russian military to adopt drastic measures to sustain its combat capabilities. This includes the announcement of a partial mobilization of an additional 300,000 troops and relaxing recruitment standards to include convicted and elderly civilians.
The Russian military has also suffered considerable material losses, leaving behind about 1,300 armored vehicles on the battlefield. To compensate, they have been forced to resort to using outdated T62 tanks produced in the 1970s.
The British Ministry of Defense's intelligence community released a similar estimate in early December, citing official Russian Ministry of Defense forces' losses between 180,000 to 240,000 wounded and approximately 50,000 killed. As of December 12, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine estimates the total combat losses of the Russians at around 340,650 personnel.
These figures paint a grim picture of the human and material cost of the war for Russia. The scale of the losses indicates significant challenges for the Russian military, both in terms of maintaining troop numbers and modernizing its equipment. The conflict, which has been ongoing since February 2022, shows no signs of abating, with both sides incurring heavy losses.
