On Wednesday, American General Mark Milley estimated that Russia’s military had lost more than 100,000 personnel in Ukraine, adding that Ukrainian forces had “probably” suffered a comparable amount of losses. “Over 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured. The same thing is most likely happening on the Ukrainian side. A great deal of human pain, “. He went on to say that the war has likely converted 15-30 million Ukrainians into refugees, with 40,000 killed since Russia invaded in February.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia stated that its soldiers will withdraw from the west bank of the Dnipro River near the crucial southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a big defeat for Moscow and potential turning point in the war.
Milley stated that preliminary indications showed Russia was withdrawing from Kherson. However, he emphasized that it may take some time to finish. “It won’t take them a day or two; it will take them days, if not weeks, to move those forces south of that river,” Milley added, estimating that Russia had 20,000 to 30,000 troops in the area north of the Dnipro. Despite the high human toll, US officials believe Moscow has been unable to fulfill its goals in Ukraine, raising concerns about how long Russia can continue an invasion that has also devastated most of its mechanized combat troops and depleted artillery stocks.
As we’ve now seen with recent events in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have rushed to take territory that Russian troops left behind, creeping closing to Kherson city as recently President Zelensky announced the liberating of 41 settlements in Mykolaiv and Kherson Oblast over a 24hr period.
