Nearly 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Pentagon number three Colin Kahl said Monday (August 8). He also acknowledged that the Ukrainian forces had also suffered heavy losses, without quantifying them.
Separately, the Pentagon on Monday announced new military aid to Ukraine in the amount of $1 billion, which includes additional missiles for US Himars precision artillery systems. The United States also called on Russia on Monday to cease all military activity in and around nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including that of Zaporizhia, the largest in Europe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raised the specter of the Chernobyl disaster on Monday, following new strikes at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia occupied by the Russians.
“The Russians lost probably 70,000 or 80,000 troops in less than six months,” Colin Kahl, deputy secretary of defense for political affairs, told reporters, noting that figure includes dead and wounded. Russian forces have also lost “3,000 or 4,000” armored vehicles, and may lack precision-guided missiles, including air-to-surface and sea-to-surface missiles, added the Pentagon’s number three.
“This is quite remarkable considering that the Russians failed to achieve any of Vladimir Putin’s goals at the start of the war,” the US official continued. “They’ve made some progress in the east, albeit very little in recent weeks,” he noted. “But this came at an extraordinary cost to the Russian military because of the quality of the Ukrainian military and the international aid it received.”
Colin Kahl acknowledged that the Ukrainian forces had also suffered heavy losses, without quantifying them. Kyiv reported at least 10,000 dead and 30,000 wounded in its troops. According to a military source who requested anonymity, the Ukrainian army, which was strong with 170,000 active soldiers and 100,000 reservists at the start of the war on February 24, has been reinforced to reach 300,000 to 350,000 soldiers. .
The Pentagon on Monday announced new military aid to Ukraine in the amount of $1 billion, which includes additional missiles for US Himars precision artillery systems. This new tranche of aid also provides for the shipment of additional short- and medium-range missiles for Nasams anti-aircraft defense systems, as well as Javelin anti-tank missiles, the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
kyiv will also receive 75,000 155 mm shells, intended for the Western artillery systems with which the Ukrainian forces are now equipped, and around fifty armored medical vehicles. These are “crucial capabilities to help the Ukrainians fend off the Russian offensive in the east and adapt to ongoing developments in the south and elsewhere,” Pentagon number three Colin told reporters. Kahl, in reference to the counter-offensive launched by kyiv in the region of Kherson, in the south.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday raised the specter of the Chernobyl disaster and called for new sanctions against Russia, following fresh strikes at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
“The world must not forget Chernobyl and the fact that Zaporizhia is the largest power station in Europe. The Chernobyl disaster (in 1986) was the explosion of a reactor and the Zaporizhia power station has six reactors,” he said Monday evening in his daily video address.
The Zaporijjia power plant site in southern Ukraine has been under Russian control since March 4. It was bombed twice at the end of last week, including near a reactor. Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for the strikes. “We need new sanctions against the terrorist state and against the entire Russian nuclear industry which creates the threat of nuclear catastrophe”, continued Volodymyr Zelensky.
The United States on Monday called on Russia to cease all military activity in and around nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including that of Zaporizhia. “We continue to call on Russia to cease all military operations in and around Ukrainian nuclear power plants and to return control of them to Ukraine,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean Pierre said during a briefing. a press briefing aboard Air Force One. “Fighting around a nuclear power plant is dangerous”, she said while stressing that, according to the data collected, “fortunately, we have no indication of an abnormal increase in the levels of radioactivity”.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other since Friday of bombing the Zaporijjia power plant, without any independent source being able to confirm it. Russia said the latest strike, overnight from Saturday to Sunday, damaged a high-voltage line supplying electricity to two Ukrainian regions.
This bombardment “by the Ukrainian armed forces” is “potentially extremely dangerous” and “could have catastrophic consequences for a vast area, including for European territory”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday deemed “increasingly alarming” the information from Zaporijjia, one of whose reactors had to be shut down.
Ukraine’s security services said on Monday they foiled an assassination attempt on Ukraine’s defense minister and military intelligence chief and neutralized several of its suspected organizers.
The SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) announced on its Telegram account that it had “arrested Russian secret service killers who were planning the assassinations” of Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov and the head of military intelligence Kyrylo Boudanov. broadcast a video of these arrests on which we see an armed group knocking down and handcuffing two men in civilian clothes who are heading towards a car.
The arrest of these two men, one of whom arrived from Russia in Ukraine via Belarus, took place in Kovel, in the north-west of Ukrainian territory. According to the SBU, those arrested were preparing “the physical liquidation” of these two senior Ukrainian defense officials as well as a “known Ukrainian activist” whose name he does not mention. Each of these killings was to be rewarded with a sum ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, the SBU claimed.
The World Bank on Monday announced an additional $4.5 billion in aid for Ukraine, with funds provided by the United States, to help the government meet “urgent needs created by the war”. . This additional aid should in particular enable the government and local authorities to cover social, pension or health expenditure, the World Bank said in a press release. The aid will be disbursed in installments to the Ukrainian government, with a first disbursement of $3 billion this month, the US Treasury Department said in a separate statement.
“Ukraine needs continued government services, including health, education and social protection, to prevent further deterioration of living conditions and poverty,” World Bank President David Malpass said. , quoted in the press release. “We are grateful to the United States and our partners for their continued support…and for the generous grant that will greatly support the people of Ukraine,” he added. This brings the total amount of emergency financial assistance mobilized for Ukraine by the institution to nearly $13 billion, of which more than $6.3 billion had been disbursed by the end of July.
