Russia has struggled to meet any of its top strategic goals in the nearly five-month invasion of Ukraine. But the U.S. and its NATO allies may be on the verge of meeting one of theirs.
Fresh estimates this week underscore the depth of damage suffered by Russia’s military so far in its nearly five-month war in Ukraine. The staggering number of casualties and equally stunning amount of vehicles and equipment lost have left the Russian army severely degraded, even as it makes slow, grinding territorial gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
That’s not even counting the costs back home, where — despite still-strong energy export revenues — the Russian economy may shrink by a tenth this year, Russian banks, universities and sports teams are cut off from the international arena, and sanctions have led Western suppliers to cut off key commodities and Western retailers to shutter their Russian operations.