(RightIsRight.co) – Russia has been weakened in the long term by the vast military losses it has suffered since its leader Vladimir Putin invaded its neighbor Ukraine, a senior Pentagon official has declared.
The damages suffered by the Russian military are so tremendous that it may never fully recover from the war in Ukraine, Colin Kahl, the US Department of Defense’s undersecretary for policy, told CNN.
“Putin has failed. Russia will emerge from this war weaker than it went in,” the Pentagon official stated regarding the biggest war in Europe since World War II, which the Russian autocrat started on February 24 of this year.
“Putin went into this war trying to extinguish Ukraine as an independent, sovereign democratic country. He’s failed, and that’s not going to change. A sovereign, independent, democratic Ukraine is going to endure,” Kahl elaborated.
He added that Putin’s Russia had already lost half of its tanks and had used up most of its precision missile stockpile was now gone.
The Defense Department official noted that the US and its allies’ stringent economic sanctions imposed on Russia had made it “very difficult” for Moscow to rebuild its lost military equipment.
Kahl said that assessment didn’t even take into account the “tens of thousands” of troops Russia had lost since starting the war.
In July, the Pentagon said at least 75,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded.
The latest figures from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that, as of November 10, more than 78,690 Russian troops had been killed in combat.
However, that number refers only to the official Russian military. It does not include mercenaries from Putin’s private armies, such as the Wagner Group, auxiliary forces from the Russian national guard, or proxy troops of conscripts from the ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Factoring in those losses would also mean that Putin has lost more than 100,000 fighters killed in battle.
The number of those wounded, missing, or captured by Ukraine is believed to be as high, meaning Russia’s troop casualties may have surpassed 200,000 in eight-and-a-half months of fighting.
Ukraine’s data also showed its defenders had destroyed 17,343 pieces of heavy Russian military equipment, including 2,804 main battle tanks, 278 warplanes, 260 attack helicopters, 16 ships, 4,242 trucks and jeeps, and 5,682 armored personnel carriers.
The last time Moscow announced its losses was in September when Putin’s Defense Ministry Sergey Shoigu claimed fewer than 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed.
Yet, also in September, Putin declared mass mobilization of 300,000 reservists and civilians, with leaked documents showing the regime wanted to put 1.2 million men under arms.
The latest reports from Russian military bloggers claim that Moscow has resorted to using 79-year-old D-1 howitzers (made in 1943, during the Second World War).
Putin’s regime has already attacked Ukrainian cities with the Iranian-made kamikaze drone Shahed-136. In addition, reports say it has struck a deal with Iran to receive Iranian ballistic missiles with a range of 430 miles.
A Pentagon official assessed Wednesday that Russia's military has sustained long-term damage in its ongoing war with Ukraine. https://t.co/7dNDnXcpfR
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) November 9, 2022
