Russia still has more than three-fourths of its capabilities in Ukraine, the Pentagon assesses, even after six weeks of a mostly unsuccessful military campaign.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Friday afternoon that the department estimates Russian forces have “between 80% and 85% of what they had,” explaining that it “goes up or down depending on what individual factor you’re looking at: tanks, fighter aircraft, missile inventory, troops.”
BREAKING DOWN THE $1.7 BILLION IN US MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE
Russian troops near the capital of Kyiv have since retreated toward Belarus and Russia, from where they came. They sought to overthrow the capital quickly, yet after six weeks, Ukrainian forces have put up far more resistance than expected, to the point that Russia has redirected its attention to capturing the southeastern part of the country instead.
“The aggregate tells us that they are under 85% of their assessed available combat power when they started this invasion,” the official added.
The Pentagon believes the retreated forces will eventually be redeployed to eastern Ukraine, though it won’t happen with “great speed.” The official added, “We don’t believe that, in general, this is going to be a speedy process for them given the kinds of casualties they’ve taken and the kind of damage that they’ve sustained to their units’ readiness.”
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At least 50 people were killed, and nearly 100 others wounded, following a Russian attack on a crowded train station Friday morning in the Donetsk region. Roughly 4,000 people had gathered at the Kramatorsk railway station, waiting to be evacuated, when two rockets hit.
The Pentagon doesn’t believe Russia’s denial of responsibility, the official said, identifying the strike as a short-range ballistic missile.
