In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defence Ministry Press Service on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, a Su-25 warplane is seen from the cockpit of another such aircraft as they fire rockets on a mission over Ukraine.
Russia's military has suffered enormous losses in the two years since it invaded Ukraine. Multiple experts and top military commanders are warning that Moscow is finding innovative ways to rebuild, despite sanctions. It's an effort that could tip the balance on the battlefield in Ukraine and throughout Europe.
"They are devoting an enormous fraction of their budget to the military over the coming years, next year specifically, and they are running their defence industrial base just as fast as they can right now."As allies scramble to supply Ukraine, Canada still has no deal to ramp up munitions production Last week, a senior U.S. Pentagon official estimated that as many as 315,000 Russian soldiers have died or been wounded since the full invasion on Feb. 24, 2022 — essentially the entire army with which Russia started the war.
"But they're doing actually rather well in terms of their artillery production and their older tanks. So I think that is, of course, a concern, because in the end, sometimes quantity becomes a quality in itself." "By the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive in June 2023, this had risen to 410,000 troops and was becoming more organized. Over the summer of 2023, Russia established training regiments along the border and in the occupied territories and — following the mutiny of Wagner forces — endeavoured to standardize its units, breaking down the previous trend toward private armies.
Police officers look at collected fragments of the Russian rockets, including cluster rounds, that hit Kharkiv in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster munitions, warning that Russia “reserves the right to take reciprocal action” if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 20, 2023. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said that wider support for the Kremlin's war is alarming.