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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Russian forces have suffered about 60,000 casualties in their prolonged war of aggression in Ukraine, US Central Intelligence Agency chief estimates.
The war now in its fifth month was initially targeted at overthrowing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and taking over much of the country. When the Russians failed to make any progress towards the capital Kyiv, they retreated to the eastern Donbas region.
"It's
always a range and, you know, there's no perfect number,” CIA Director William
Burns told the Aspen Security Forum, Washington Examiner reports. “I think the
latest estimates from the U.S. intelligence community would be, you know,
something in the vicinity of 15,000 killed and maybe three times that wounded,
so a quite significant set of losses.”
He also
noted that the defending Ukrainian troops “have suffered as well — probably a
little less than” the Russians.
Vladimir Putin miscalculated Ukrainian war
Burns said
Russian President Vladimir Putin had miscalculated the war on grounds that
Ukraine was a part of Russia and needed to do everything to take it.
“Putin
really does believe in his rhetoric — and I've heard him say this privately
over the years — that Ukraine is not a real country,” said Burns in a
conversation with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, according to Washington Examiner. “He
believes that it's his entitlement, Russia's entitlement, to dominate Ukraine.
... Putin and the people closest to him clearly believed they had a favorable
landscape over this past winter — a Ukraine that they judged to be weak and
divided, that would fold quickly, a Russian military modernized to the point
where they could win, in his view, a quick and decisive victory at minimal
cost.”
Mr Burns had
visited Putin in November 2021 in a bid to discourage him from embarking on the
war but that did not dissuade the former KGB boss.
Russian
forces are now concentrating in the Donbas region but are also targeting the
Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia.
“Now, [our]
geography is different,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state
media, Washington Examiner reported. “It is not only the [Donbas] — it is also
the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region, and a number of other
territories.”
Putin's mental stability
Burns also
dismissed any suggestion that Putin’s actions have been shaped by mental or
physical instability, according to Washington Examiner.
“As far as
we can tell, he's entirely too healthy. It’s not a formal intelligence
judgment,” he said to laughter. “His views have hardened, in my experience,
over the years, but he's got his own way of looking at reality. And as we, you
know, could see in the first stages of this war, it was based on some
profoundly flawed assumptions and some real illusions, especially about Ukraine
and the will to resist in Ukraine.”
Burns
admitted his conversation with Ukrainian officials indicated that the Ukrainian
forces are also suffering as a result of the war.
“In one of
my recent conversations with one of my Ukrainian counterparts, he pointed out
that the dumb Russians are all dead,” Burns said, according to Washington
Examiner. “What he meant by that is ... the Russians have adapted. Putin has
shrunk his objectives, at least for the time being — I stress, at least for the
time being — he’s concentrated his forces in the Donbas, and they’re grinding
away.”
Mr Putin
invaded Ukraine in 2014 and take over Crimea but that gave Ukraine the
determination to fight back, according to Burns.
“My own strong view is that Putin was wrong in
his assumptions about breaking the alliance and breaking Ukrainian will before
the war began,” he said, according to Washington Examiner. “And I think he is
just as wrong now. ... He insists that Ukraine is not a real country. Well,
real countries fight back, and that's what the Ukrainians have done, so long as
we continue to support them with the weaponry and the munitions that they have
used so effectively.”