The Russian army will emerge from the war with Ukraine weakened because it has suffered enormous losses: this is the assessment of a high-ranking Bundeswehr official in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung after almost two years of conflict.
Published on: December 29, 2023 – 10:23 p.m
2 minutes
With our correspondent in Berlin, Blandine Milcent
Russia is suffering “enormous” losses not only in men but also in equipment, said Christian Freuding, a senior Bundeswehr official in charge of Ukraine and one of the German defense minister’s key advisers. The general relies on figures from Western secret services: 300,000 Russian soldiers were killed or seriously injured in the almost two years of the conflict, he reports to the daily newspaper Southgerman newspaper.
The general, who is also one of the main advisers to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, confirmed a leaked December 12 assessment by American intelligence agencies that 315,000 Russian soldiers had been injured or killed since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
A capacity for resistance
But at the same time, “the Russians are still managing to recruit personnel, including by bringing prisoners” to the front, said General Freunding. President Vladimir Putin recently noted that Russia managed to voluntarily recruit 486,000 soldiers into the army in 2023.
As for material losses, the number of decommissioned tanks and armored vehicles runs into the thousands. In addition, Russia has not achieved its goals: 80% of Ukrainian territory is free, and the Ukrainian army has managed to recapture 50% of the territories occupied by the Russians.
However, Christian Freuding believes that we have underestimated the resilience of Russia, which has invested heavily in the defense industry despite the sanctions, which benefits from support from North Korea or China and which, he warns, could renew its capacities in a few years.
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