Up to 15,000 Russian troops dead in Ukraine, Nato says
- The figures represent the alliance’s first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war began
- Nato is moving to expand its forces in Eastern Europe and help Ukraine counter chemical or biological attacks
Nato estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce resistance from the country’s defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.
A senior Nato military official said the alliance’s estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released – intentionally or not – and intelligence gathered from open sources. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by Nato.
Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.
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Chinese war reporter injured in Ukraine during shelling on Mariupol front line
The Nato official said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded. In its last update, Russia said March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.
Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. Russia acknowledges just one dead general.
The figures from Nato represent the alliance’s first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war began.
The US government has largely declined to provide estimates of Russian or Ukrainian casualties, saying available information is of questionable reliability.
When Russia unleashed its invasion February 24 in Europe’s biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine’s government seemed likely. But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.
In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, a senior Russian official said the country’s nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.
“The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance,” Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, said in televised remarks.
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Search for survivors continues after barracks in Ukraine’s southern Mykolayiv attacked by Russia
He noted that Moscow’s nuclear stockpiles include tactical nuclear weapons, designed for use on battlefields, along with far more powerful nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. Roscosmos oversees missile-building facilities.
US officials long have warned that Russia’s military doctrine envisages an “escalate to de-escalate” option of using battlefield nuclear weapons to force the enemy to back down in a situation when Russian forces face imminent defeat. Moscow has denied having such plans.
Rogozin is known for his bluster, and he did not make clear what actions by the West would be seen as meddling, but his comments almost certainly reflect thinking inside the Kremlin.
Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia. Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.
As US President Joe Biden left for Europe to meet key allies about new sanctions against Moscow and more military aid to Ukraine, he warned there is a “real threat” Russia could use chemical weapons.
On the eve of a meeting with Biden, European Union nations signed off on another €500 million (US$550 million) in military aid for Ukraine.
Nato leaders meanwhile are set to agree to station more forces in Eastern Europe to deter Russia from invading any member of their ranks and to send equipment to Ukraine to help it defend against chemical or biological attacks, the organisation’s top civilian official said Wednesday.
Speaking on the eve of a series of Brussels summits focusing on the war in Ukraine, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said four new battle groups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Stoltenberg said the forces will remain in place “as long as necessary”. Nato currently has around 40,000 troops from several nations under its command, a number almost tenfold higher than it was a few months ago, military commanders say.
“Along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland, this means that we will have eight multinational Nato battle groups all along the eastern flank, from the Baltic to the Black Sea,” Stoltenberg said.
The alliance also has 140 warships at sea and 130 aircraft on high alert.
Russia’s actions, he told reporters, have become the “new normal for our security, and Nato has to respond to that new reality”.
