Russia-Ukraine Invasion
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WASHINGTON — Russia has lost about one-quarter of its troops, weapons and military equipment originally sent to invade Ukraine less than two months ago, a senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday.
“We believe that [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] roughly at 75% of his combat power that he had originally when he started,” the official told reporters at the Pentagon. “This is across all functions: it's infantry, its artillery, its aviation – both fixed and rotary – it's ballistic missiles, cruise missiles [etc.]”
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The U.S. official on Tuesday said Russia had started “some limited offensive operations” southwest of Donetsk and south of Izyum in eastern Ukraine, but cautioned more Russian operations are expected.
"We're not pushing back on the notion that offensive operations have begun, but we think that this is a prelude of larger offensive operations that are potentially still in the offing here,” the official said.
That’s because Russia is also conducting what the official called “shaping operations,” or preparations for a larger assault.
“In other words, they continue to reinforce to make sure they have logistics and sustainment supplies [and] continue to make sure that they have proper aviation and other enabling capabilities,” the official said. “So it's not binary – it’s not stop one thing and start another.”
Russia’s preparations could indicate its military is “trying to learn and adapt from some of the mistakes they made earlier in the war, particularly around Kyiv,” where Russian forces were stalled for weeks due in part to food and fuel shortages before retreating.
“They are trying to learn how to fix and overcome those logistics and sustainment challenges,” the official said.