A top NATO commander has revealed the true extent of Russian Air Force losses as Vladimir Putin’s forces prepare for a summer offensive.
General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of the US European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, said Russia has seen roughly 10 percent of its aircraft destroyed since the war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022.
He told the House Armed Services Committee: “The air force has lost some aircraft, but only about 10 percent of their fleet.”
Cavoli added that Russia’s strategic forces, space capabilities and long-range aviation have lost “no capacity at all”.
Moscow has also gone a long way in replenishing the military losses, particularly in its land forces, as Cavoli warned it is “reconstituting that force far faster than our initial estimates suggested”.
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He claimed Russia’s army is actually 15 percent larger than when the war began, despite personnel losses being estimated at around 450,000.
Cavoli added: “Perhaps most concerning, the Russian military in the past year has shown an accelerating ability to learn and adapt to battlefield challenges both tactically and technologically, and has become a learning organization that little resembles the chaotic force that invaded Ukraine two years ago.”
Figures published by Ukrainian outlet Minfin put Russian plane losses at 347 and helicopter losses at 325 in the 26 months of fighting.
In February, Ukraine’s defence ministry reported losses of 12 Russian military aircraft in just 12 days, prompting Russia to cut back on aircraft activity in eastern Ukraine.
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A month later, UK senior military adviser Nicholas Aucott said that “repeated destruction of warplanes is a significant setback for Russia’s war effort”, highlighting Ukraine’s successful campaign.
Despite Cavoli’s warning of Russian advancements in military replenishment, Aucott added that Moscow is “losing jets 20 times faster than they can replace them”.
As the war rages on and Volodymyr Zelensky continues his urgent pleas for military aid, Russia is reportedly “preparing and may already have sufficient manpower and materiel to significantly intensify ongoing offensive operations or initiate offensive efforts in new areas”, according to the think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
