According to Christian Freuding, a senior German military figure, Russia has suffered huge human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge weakened from the conflict.
In an interview, Freuding, who oversees the German army’s support for Kyiv, stated that per western intelligence figures, 300,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or so seriously wounded that they can no longer be mobilised for the war.
Leaked U.S intelligence earlier this month indicated that 315,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the war began.
Freuding, who is also a key adviser to the German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, said, “The Russian losses of men and material are enormous.”
He added that Russia is also believed to have lost thousands of battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
He said: The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened, both materially and in terms of personnel.
However, Russia is succeeding in continuing to recruit troops “including the use of prisoners”, Freuding said.
And, of course, we are seeing massive investments in the arms industry.
The German general acknowledged that Russia was demonstrating a greater “resilience” than western allies had expected at the start of the war.
We perhaps did not see, or did not want to see, that they are in a position to continue to be supplied by allies.
Russia Launches Wave Of Missile Strikes Across Ukraine
Meanwhile, Russia launched a wave of missile strikes across Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least two people and wounding 18.
“We haven’t seen so much red on our monitors for a long time,” said Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air force, explaining that Russian forces had first launched a wave of suicide drones followed by missiles.
Presidential aide Andriy Yermak said on Telegram:There are people killed by Russian missiles today that were launched at civilian facilities, civilian buildings.
We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror.
The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the capital’s air defences were working intensively and seven people had been hospitalised.
A metro station, whose platforms were being used as an air raid shelter, was damaged, he said.
Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said a warehouse with an area of about 3,000 sq metres (32,300 sq ft) was burning in the northern Podil district.
In other districts of the city, an uninhabited multistorey block of flats also caught fire and a private house was damaged, Popko said.
In the central Shevchenko district, a residential building was damaged and there was also a fire in a warehouse with six believed to be injured, Popko said.
Klitschko wrote on social media that there appeared to be three people still under rubble of the warehouse while three others had been rescued.
Moreover, drones and missiles struck at least five other Ukrainian cities on Friday, including Kharkiv in the northeast, Lviv in the west, Dnipro in the east and Odesa in the south.
Reacting to the missile strikes, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President, posted on X saying that “Russian terror must and will lose.”
“Unfortunately, there have been fatalities and injuries as a result of the strikes. All services are working around the clock and providing the necessary aid. My condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. I wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
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