The US Department of Defense told lawmakers on Tuesday it estimated between 2,000 and 4,000 Russians soldiers Was killed in Moscow lasts almost two weeks invasion of Ukraine.
The assessment came as the United States defense and intelligence chiefs painted a grim picture of an aggressive and aggrieved Russian President Vladimir Putin and a likelihood that he will continue to spread a full-climb invasion of neighboring Ukraine in the face of massive global opposition.
Interviewed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing how many Russian soldiers have died so far in the military operation, Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said: “Somewhere between two (one thousand) and 4,000.”
Berrier added, however, that the estimate is considered “low confidence” because it was established using a combination of intelligence sources and open source data.
Russia, in a rare release of military death numbers, says on March 2, 498 of son soldiers is dead. Ukraine said at the time that it believed the figure was higher.
Director of Central Intelligence William Burns told the House panel that he believes that Ukraine and the war waged by Moscow is a matter of “deep personal conviction” for Putin.
“He simmers in a combustible suit of grievances and ambition,” Burns said, adding that he expects “a nasty next a few weeks in who (Putin) double down” in Ukraine”with little consideration for civilian casualties.”
But he also expressed his confidence that the Ukrainians will continue “to resist fiercely and effectively”.
Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Avril Haines, told lawmakers that Putin had not anticipated the full scope of the global economic, trade and diplomatic pushback against Russia.
But she also said the DNI believed he was “little probable may Putin be deterred from such setbacks” and sees the conflict as “a war he cannot afford to lose”.
