Sailors visit a monument to Captain Andrei Paliy, deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, March 23 in Sevastopol, Crimea. (Alexey Pavlishak/Portal)
LONDON – More than 75,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured since the Kremlin launched its brutal war against Ukraine on February 24, according to US intelligence services.
Speaking to CNN, Michigan MP Elissa Slotkin said the estimate has been released during a secret briefing with officials in the Biden administration. “We were informed that over 75,000 Russians were either killed or wounded [in Ukraine], that’s huge. … Over 80% of their land forces are bogged down and tired,” she said.
That’s roughly the number of victims CIA Director William Burns estimated on July 20. “I think the latest US intelligence estimates would be about 15,000 dead and maybe three times that many wounded – a pretty substantial series of casualties,” Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum.
He went on to say that Ukrainian soldiers “also suffered” but “probably a little less” than enemy forces. Recently, senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there were between 100 and 200 military casualties every day.
Before the Russian invasion, President Biden said Russia had amassed around 150,000 troops, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed 200,000 were stationed on Ukraine’s borders. The Russian Defense Ministry has not released any figures.
In a briefing on Monday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said the number of Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine in the first three months of the invasion was comparable to the Soviet Union’s losses during its decades-long conflict in Afghanistan.
“A combination of poor low-level tactics, limited air cover, lack of flexibility, and a commando approach that is willing to amplify mistakes and repeat mistakes has led to this high casualty rate, which continues to rise in the Donbass offensive,” said the Department.
Russia is hiding the number of casualties its military has suffered, announcing on March 25 that it had counted 1,351 dead. No public statements have been made since then.