A senior Pentagon official estimated on Monday, August 8 that as many as 80,000 Russians have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the war began in late February.
"The Russians have probably taken 70 or 80,000 casualties in less than six months," Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl said. Mr. Kahl also said Russian forces have also lost "3,000 to 4,000" armored vehicles, and could be running low on available precision-guided missiles, including air and sea-launched cruise missiles, after firing a large number on Ukraine targets since launching the invasion on February 24.
He said the slowdown in Russian forces' use of longer range and precision-guided missiles was an indicator that their supplies had fallen close to what Moscow needed to hold in reserve for "other contingencies." Those losses are "pretty remarkable considering the Russians have achieved none of Vladimir Putin's objectives at the beginning of the war," he told reporters.
