- Russia has suffered serious losses in Ukraine, including more than 600,000 casualties, according to US estimates.
- But a senior US general warns that Moscow still has dangerous forces untouched by the war.
- These include long-range aviation, strategic missile forces and underwater capabilities.
Russia has suffered significant losses in Ukraine, but its military still has dangerous fighting forces barely touched by the conflict, the top US general in Europe warned this week.
“The Russian military that we see operating in Ukraine, and the blows they’ve taken, have to be seen in the context of their entire military structure,” said Gen. Christopher Cavoli, commander of U.S. European Command, in an interview with Atlantic. Council.
Cavoli, also NATO’s Supreme Alliance Commander in Europe, said Russia still has forces that have been “barely affected” by the Ukraine war, including its long-range aviation, strategic missile forces, defense units and assets underwater. He said most of Moscow’s tactical air force has not yet been engaged in the conflict.
“So while there have been significant, significant losses in the land domain, in the rest of Russia’s military structure, there remains a large amount of capabilities — conventional and nuclear — and so it’s necessary to take that into account,” Cavoli said. during the video interview with the panel of experts, which was released on Tuesday.
Russian soldiers ride a self-propelled mortar at an undisclosed location in Ukraine in October. Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Defense through AP
Throughout the war, Russia has made efforts to display its military capabilities beyond Ukraine, such as conducting submarine exercises in the Baltic Sea and increasing underwater activity in the Atlantic, flying military aircraft with China near Alaska, conducting nuclear preparedness exercises and effort to test. new long-range ballistic missiles.
However, Moscow’s military demonstrations abroad come against the backdrop of its setbacks in Ukraine; what Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to be a quick and decisive victory has turned into a bloody conflict approaching the three-year mark.
Western intelligence estimates that Russia has suffered over 600,000 casualties since the start of the war in Ukraine and is averaging more than 1,200 casualties each day – a trend that is likely to continue. Meanwhile, Moscow is believed to have lost a massive amount of military equipment, including thousands of tanks and armored vehicles.
Cavoli explained during the Atlantic Council interview that while Russia’s ground forces have suffered heavy losses in the fighting in Ukraine, Moscow has taken significant steps to restore them.
Russian soldiers load a short-range ballistic missile during tactical nuclear weapons training in June. Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Defense through AP, Dosja
“The military force — the ground force — inside Ukraine today is significantly larger than the ground force that was there at the beginning of the war,” Cavoli said, “so the Russian military has actually grown over this period.”
“Now, there are some quality issues, and some of the equipment may not be the latest, but that is again localized to the ground forces,” he said. “Russia has a plan to rebuild that ground force and put it, again, on NATO’s borders.”
“It is a plan that they have made public and that they have talked about and it is something that we have to take very seriously,” he added.
Cavoli’s remarks this week signal his latest warnings about the continuing Russian threat. The US general – like other senior US officials – has said on several occasions in recent months that Moscow is still dangerous and is making up for its losses during the war.