Free Republic

As many as 80,000 Russian troops have been wounded or killed in less than six months of fighting in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday, the first time the U.S. military announced its estimates of the toll of the invasion on Russia. According to U.S. estimates, Russia has suffered 70,000 to 80,000 casualties, Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters at a press briefing Monday. In the days leading up to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Western officials estimated that Russia had staged roughly 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s border.

The top brass toll from Vladimir Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine continues to rise, with the death of another colonel. Colonel Ivan Grishin, commander of the 49th anti-aircraft missile brigade, died from abdominal shrapnel wounds. He was killed near Kharkiv. The news comes amid reports from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that 20,600 Russian servicemen have been killed in the war. Just days ago, Russia lost its eighth general since the invasion of Ukraine in the latest blow to Vladimir Putin's botched war.