Foreign Policy: US officials say Russia is facing its toughest battle since World War II

The US Foreign Policy quoted a senior Pentagon official as saying that the Department of Defense estimates that about 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the beginning of the Russian "invasion" of Ukraine about 6 months ago.

The magazine indicated - in a report prepared by its correspondent from the Pentagon, Jack Deitch - that when the administration of President Joe Biden announced a new military aid package to Ukraine worth one billion dollars (the largest payment sent by Washington to Kiev since the beginning of the war), American officials sought to shed light on the losses incurred. The Russian army as a result of the war, noting that it is the most intense conflict in Europe since World War II.

The reporter quoted Colin Kahl, the chief policy officer in the Pentagon, as saying that there were a huge number of casualties in the ranks of the Russian army, and saying, "I think we can indicate that the Russians' losses amounted to 70 or 80 thousand dead in less than 6 months."

The aforementioned estimates, and others issued by the US government, indicate that Ukraine has inflicted casualties on the Russian army that exceeded 10,000 soldiers during the past month alone, that is, after Kyiv received new multiple missile systems from the United States, Britain and Germany.

Despite the heavy casualties in its ranks, independent experts told Foreign Policy that these losses did not prevent the Kremlin from maintaining the Ukrainian areas it controls, even as Ukrainian forces advanced in Kherson.

The magazine said that Ukrainian officials demanded that the United States provide them with missile systems capable of striking Russian targets at a distance of approximately 200 miles, in addition to hundreds of "HIMARS" missiles, but the Biden administration responded by warning Ukraine against striking targets inside Russian territory.

The Pentagon estimates that at the beginning of the war, Russia deployed 120 tactical battalions in Ukraine, comprising about 100,000 soldiers.

Experts believe that the new estimates of the dead in the ranks of the Russian army likely include paramilitary forces and volunteers, such as the Wagner Group, which Moscow called up from other battlefields in Libya, Syria and Central Africa to fight on the front lines in the Donbass region.