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Russia has lost 87% of troops it had prior to start of Ukraine war, according to US intelligence assessment (www.cnn.com)

submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN.

Still, despite heavy losses of men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to push forward as the war approaches its two-year anniversary early next year and US officials are warning that Ukraine remains deeply vulnerable. A highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive stagnated through the fall, and US officials believe that Kyiv is unlikely to make any major gains over the coming months.

The assessment, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday, comes as some Republicans have balked at the US providing additional funding for Ukraine and the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to try to get supplemental funding through Congress.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 40 points 11 months ago

Frankly, it may come to be seen as, in terms of bang for the buck, the single most effective use of US military funding in history.

Think about it: Russia went from being considered a peer-state of the US to the second most effective army currently conducting combat operations in Ukraine. That’s embarrassing any way you spin it. They have utterly destroyed any real vestige of conventional military power they had, and Ukraine is the one who shattered not only that reputation, but also the capability.

And not just in terms of physical assets - Putin called up training officers and sent them to the front. You just… you don’t do that. It means that instead of taking another year or two to train a new generation of officers to competence… it takes 10, and even then they’re not very good, because all the institutional knowledge those instructors had was lost. The only reason they’re even considered these days is because they’re a nuclear state.

[-] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

All while letting Rob who works at Lockheed Martin buy a new truck from all the overtime he can clock since the defence industry is working full time. It's not perfect, but it's literally injecting money into the American economy to show Russia what is what without sending any troops whatsoever.

[-] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 6 points 11 months ago

I had not heard that. That is just madness. Its got to be one of the worst cases of unchecked hubris in history. I mean in the 1600s someone would have plunged a dagger into his neck by now. Usually people see the writing on the wall and get to finding a more competent leader but he's spent decades building this impenetrable circle of loyalists that know they must be absolutely devoted or they're going to be next on the defenestration block.

No one dares tell these men about their collosal fuck ups. Nope, everything's going great, we will have this done in 2 more months sir!

If not for nukes I think he would have been long dead by now. If not by the Russian people then surely nato would have rolled over Russia and we would be well into the process of 'denazifying' the country.

this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023

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