The Russian military has been reluctant to fight from the very beginning. 19-year-old conscripted soldiers went to war on a lie when Vladimir Putin told them it was for military exercises. Instead, they faced the Ukrainian military fighting with the same vengeance as the Vikings defending their homeland. Now with the U.S.’s estimate of 70,000 to 80,000 Kremlin casualties, their soldier morale is at the bottom of a very deep pit.
That immediately put the inexperienced Russian soldiers at a disadvantage. Most of the injured Russian soldiers were beaten back during the initial phase of Putin’s invasion on February 24. That was when they tried to win Ukraine’s Capitol city Kyiv in the country’s northern corridor.
The ukrainform.net reported:
‘Ukraine’s military estimates that 42,340 Russian troop, according to the ukrainform.net, have been killed in combat, nearly triple what Western officials have stated.’
The Pentagon’s top Defense Department Under Secretary for Policy Colin Kahl spoke to reporters on Monday, The USA Today reported:
‘The Russians are taking a tremendous number of casualties. There’s a lot of fog in war but I think it’s safe to suggest that the Russians have probably taken 70 or 80,000 casualties in the less than six months. Now, that is a combination of killed in action and wounded in action and that number might be a little lower, a little higher, but I think that’s kind of in the ballpark.’
The Russians have had far more deaths and wounded soldiers in the first six months of invading Ukraine than America’s CIA indicated. Putin’s soldier often left their comrades where they fell. Later the Moscow government was been willing to trade dead Russian soldiers in return for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia came to war with portable morgues.
CIA Director William Burns said that he believed 15,000 Russian and international mercenary soldiers had died in just the few first weeks in battle. Of course, he said, guesses during active war are difficult at best. Instead, his people tried to build a “range,” but “there’s no perfect number.”
Putin and his generals realigned their military goals after they failed to take Kyiv. Instead, they decided to move into Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region to fight with long-range weapons and targeted hits. Kahl continued, saying:
‘[The extent of Russian casualties is] remarkable, [because Putin’s military] achieved none of Vladimir Putin’s objectives since invading Ukraine.’
He said these numbers fueled the Ukrainian soldiers’ morale and willingness to go into battle. They are fighting to save their country from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to absorb it.
Kahl continued, saying:
‘[It is] unquestioned, and much higher, I think, than the average morale and will to fight on the Russian side. I think that gives the Ukrainians a significant advantage.’
‘Reportedly, Russia’s Air Force 43rd Regiment airfield close to the city of Saki in Crimea has been attacked. It’s located over 200 kilometers deep in the Russian-controlled rear. What could that be?’
A war founded upon a fundamental lie already is one step down in the fight, as Russian soldiers, the mercenaries, and even those captured in the Donbas region have discovered.
In Gloria Christie Reports & Three White Lions Substack newsletters, Gloria Christie includes her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletters are for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery (in progress). Find her here on Facebook. Or at Three White Lions her book on Amazon Kindle Vella.
