Russia’s Battlefield Woes in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin’s primary objective is likely to bring Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence, either directly by militarily conquering and annexing Ukraine, or indirectly by installing a Russian ally in Kyiv. Russian military forces have so far failed to effectively advance along multiple axes in Ukraine, to seize significant territory, and have lost substantial quantities of equipment relative to Ukraine, and suffered remarkably high rates of fatalities and casualties since January 2024, according to this CSIS data brief by Seth. Jones and Riley McCabe. Their assessment examines several indicators of Russia’s battlefield performance: the relative rate of advance of Russian forces, the size of Russian territorial gains, the scope of equipment losses, and overall casualty rates. The evidence suggests that Russian fatalities in Ukraine (in just over three years) are 15 times larger than the Soviet Union’s decade-long war in Afghanistan and 10 times larger than Russia’s 13 years of war in Chechnya.
https://www.csis.org
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