US intelligence assesses Ukraine war has cost Russia 315,000 casualties
- Russia, which started the war with about 360,000 troops, has also lost hundreds of tanks, US source says
- Report emerged as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Washington seeking continued military aid
A declassified US intelligence report assessed that the Ukraine war has cost Russia 315,000 dead and injured troops, or nearly 90 per cent of the personnel it had when the conflict began, a source familiar with the intelligence said on Tuesday.
The report also assessed that Moscow’s losses in personnel and armoured vehicles to Ukraine’s military have set back Russia’s military modernisation by 18 years, the source said.
The Russian embassy referred a request for comment to the Russian defence ministry in Moscow. The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The latest casualty assessment marks a big leap from that provided in July 2022 when CIA director Bill Burns said US intelligence estimated that Russian losses were “in the vicinity of 15,000 killed and maybe three times that wounded”.
Russian officials have said Western estimates of Russian death tolls in the war are vastly exaggerated and almost always underestimate Ukrainian losses, which Russian officials say are vast.
