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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 9 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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[-] BaronDoggystyleVonWoof@lemmy.world 228 points 9 months ago

To be honest, I didn't think Russia would make it to two years. I expected riots, revolution, putin getting killed, etc. It's pretty insane how indifferent the majority of the Russian population is. That makes it even more scary.

[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 243 points 9 months ago

They did protest. And everyone was arrested. Then they protested the arrests. And everyone was arrested. Then people just silently stood in groups holding blank signs. And everyone was arrested.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 78 points 9 months ago

So only another military coup could free Russia from Putin's firm grasp.

But that's why he kept his own military led by weak leadership. And the only paramilitary group he allowed to gain strength ended up attempting a coup against him.

[-] Rubanski@lemm.ee 68 points 9 months ago

And what a whimsical coup it was

[-] ours@lemmy.world 43 points 9 months ago

Yeah, that was a wild couple of days. Not that Prigozhin and his merry bunch of neo-Nazis would have been that more tempting as leaders of Russia. So the prospects for Russians have usually been "and then it got worse" so it's hard to blame them for not putting their necks on the line for the next despot.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 16 points 9 months ago

Can't imagine why a fucking Nazi mercenary marching on Moscow couldn't gather grass roots support for the revolution.

[-] Syntha@sh.itjust.works 17 points 9 months ago

They weren't attempting a revolution, if anything, it was a coup. You don't need grassroots support for that.

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[-] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 16 points 9 months ago

And it was actually a "coup" against the Minister of Defense which really cranks up the whimsy.

[-] ammonium@lemmy.world 34 points 9 months ago

Only a very small minority did protest, that's why it didn't work.

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 51 points 9 months ago

That's because Russian "law enforcement" is actually terror, they do everything for the large part of citizens to be too afraid to even speak up not to mention doing anything.

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[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 71 points 9 months ago

It’s pretty insane how indifferent the majority of the Russian population is.

It's identical in the US. 4 years of Trump and all we got was a pro Trump attempted coup.

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[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 9 months ago

They don't know the war is going badly. They don't know what Western society knows about the war. They're fed state approved propaganda and nothing more. They're also plastered constantly which kills motivation for political upheaval.

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[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

Protest is met with swift arrest and long prison sentences.

[-] GTG3000@programming.dev 16 points 9 months ago

Well you know how it is. Everyone who knows what's going on left, everyone else just watches TV and believes them because why wouldn't they.

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[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 199 points 9 months ago

If we could harness the energy of Regan spinning in his grave, we'd have a limitless supply of energy.
Imagine telling any conservative, during the Cold War era, that we could completely fuck Russia's military power and readiness, for years to come, by sending weapons to a relatively small country. They would be rushing to arm anyone and everyone they could, unintended consequences be damned. And yet, here we are with the GOP blocking exactly that sort of activity. And even better, there is a very real possibility that we aren't arming future terrorists this time around. Maybe that's the GOP's problem, Russia losing in Ukraine won't create an excuse in 20 years to kill more brown people.

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 39 points 9 months ago

If we could harness the energy of Regan spinning in his grave, we’d have a limitless supply of energy.

I had always thought the same thing about Nixon, after he sees what Trump gets away with.

[-] sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

Ya, it's pretty bad when you can look at Nixon as a "stand up guy" compared to Trump. He at least had the decency to recognize that he had been caught in his bullshit, resign and go away.

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[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 87 points 9 months ago

Russia had a total standing military of approximately 900,000 active-duty troops

Of the 360,000 troops that entered Ukraine, including contract and conscript personnel, Russia has lost 315,000 on the battlefield, according to the assessment.

So roughly 87.5% of the initial troops was lost.

So 900,000 - 315,000 still means 585,000 troops remaining, and that's outside the conscription efforts.

Russia has announced plans to increase the size of the armed forces to 1.5 million.

Still a considerable force, as long as the supply chain is able to back it up.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 37 points 9 months ago

as long as the supply chain is able to back it up.

The amount of heavy lifting this clause is doing cannot b overstated

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[-] bearwithastick@feddit.ch 58 points 9 months ago

You know, sometimes I feel bad about gambling some money away on the stock market and feel a bit like a failure. But then I come across posts like these and I remember that at least I do not fuck up on a colossal scale like this.

[-] BorgDrone@lemmy.one 47 points 9 months ago

I remember that at least I do not fuck up on a colossal scale like this.

There is always Thomas Midgley, who invented leaded gasoline and Freon (CFC).

[-] kibiz0r@lemmy.world 46 points 9 months ago

Not only invented them, but poisoned the hell outta himself trying to prove they were safe.

And then when he was too bedridden to do anything, he invented an automated bed to help him move around and strangled himself to death in the ropes.

Truly an inspiration.

[-] Bahalex@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago

Sounds like he won a magical monkey paw from that weird stall at the fair that nobody else seems to remember.

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[-] Gigan@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

That's doesn't seem sustainable

[-] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 74 points 9 months ago

Frankly I don't care. The US wastes trillions of dollars on military spending. We have the most advanced military in the world by a mile but all too often it ends up using it to defend someone else's financial interests or to pad the pockets of people that make their money through a war economy.

Russia can get fucked. Every cent spent on the defense of Ukraine is a fully realized fuck you to our enemy. Ukraine did what we could never do. They essentially removed Russia from the equation. Yeah they have many poorly maintained nukes but they know we will fuck their ass if they touch them. They will not be posing a real threat to anyone for generations.

We aren't spending this money on the American people and we never were going to do that anyway. Our choices are we fund people actually fighting for their life or we allow that money to get sucked into the military industrial complex for no real return. They're already getting theirs out of this, the only question that remains is do you back Republicans that have made up a nothing burger about this money because they've arbitrarily decided this is the 96th hill they'll die on, or do you you want to see the money you pay in taxes actually get put to a meaningful purpose.

[-] BaronDoggystyleVonWoof@lemmy.world 50 points 9 months ago

It really is the cheapest way to destroy an enemy.

You don't need to send your own men to die.
You don't need to a full scale invasion, just let them bleed dry.
Be the "good guy" in supporting Ukraine.

There really is only win win for the US.

[-] tacosplease@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

We spent 5% of our military budget to help Ukraine take out most of our biggest adversary's army, and the Republicans think it's not worth the cost.

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[-] MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 21 points 9 months ago

Good, now let's make them lose the rest. Slava Ukraini!

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this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023

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