NATO: Up to 40,000 Russian troops KIA, MIA, injured, captured

A senior US official who asked to remain anonymous said that these estimates are hard to nail down without having personnel in country. The unnamed official said, “I’m not going to characterize what the ranges are that we’re looking at because they’re just very broad and we continue to have low confidence in those estimates because we’re not on the ground and can’t see, you know, what’s really going on on a day to day basis.”

The same US leader also told the media that Russian troops are suffering from numerous and severe logistical setbacks and that moral amongst Russian troops is poor and dropping. Specifically, the official said, “We picked up indications that some troops have actually suffered and been taken out of the fight because of frostbite,”. He also reported that some elements of Russian forces have abandoned their armored tactical vehicles and “walked off into the woods”.

Photo credit: Staff Sgt. Adriana Diaz-Brown

Russian officials have been less forthcoming about their number of casualties since invading Ukraine. Last week, Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson said that releasing those figures remains the “exclusive prerogative” of the Defense Ministry of Russia.

Peskov did say, however, “On the numbers, we agreed from the very beginning that we do not have the authority to voice them during the special military operation.”

Last week, Russian tabloid and pro-Kremlin publication, Kimsomolskaya Pravda reported that the number of Russian troops killed since the invasion was less than 10,000. The periodical referred to a report by the Russian Ministry of defence that claimed that 9,861 Russian troops were killed and that 16,153 Russian troops were wounded. Kimsomolskaya Pravda has since removed the story.