CIA director estimates 15,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war
- CIA chief says Russia’s gains in Ukraine war have come at a great cost to its forces
- Russia’s interest in buying drones from Iran reveals poor state of its military, he says
The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine so far have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said, adding that Ukraine has also endured significant casualties.
Nearly five months since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Russia’s neighbour, its forces are grinding through the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and occupy around a fifth of the country.
Burns, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Wednesday, said those gains have come at great cost.
“The latest estimates from the US intelligence community would be something in the vicinity of 15,000 (Russian forces) killed and maybe three times that wounded. So a quite significant set of losses,” Burns said.
“And, the Ukrainians have suffered as well – probably a little less than that. But, you know, significant casualties.”
Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war. On March 25 it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed.
The Kyiv government said in June that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed per day.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow’s military “tasks” in Ukraine now went beyond the Donbas, in the clearest acknowledgement yet that it has expanded its war goals.
But Burns said that at least for now the Russian military’s concentration of forces in the Donbas suggested they had learned hard lessons from failures at the start of the campaign, where Moscow stalled in its assault on Kyiv.
“In a way, what the Russian military has done is retreat to a more comfortable way of war, in a sense, by using their advantages and long range firepower to stand off and effectively destroy Ukrainian targets and to compensate for the weaknesses in manpower that they still experience,” Burns said.
Burns said Russia’s interest in buying drones from Iran for its war in Ukraine revealed the poor state of its military.
“It’s true that the Russians are reaching out to the Iranians to try to acquire armed drones,” Burns said.
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“They need each other, they don’t really trust each other, in the sense that they’re energy rivals and historical competitors,” Burns said. “It’s important to remind ourselves that it’s a reflection, in some ways, of the deficiencies of Russia’s defence industry today, and the difficulties they’re having after significant losses so far in the war against Ukraine.”
Putin visited Tehran earlier this week. Burns said Russia and Iran are trying to help each other evade US sanctions, are exploring options for alliances, shortly after President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East.
While the expected drone purchase is “troubling,” Burns said, there are limits to how much the two countries will be willing to cooperate.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
