Russia and Ukraine are in a "war of attrition" which is likely to continue through 2024, a senior NATO official said. Kusti Salm, the permanent secretary at Estonia's Defense Military, said that Kyiv and West needs to "believe in the statistics" as they try to plan against Russia.
Kusti Salm said, “It is attritional warfar. Russia deliberately wants us to think that they will outlast, they will outproduce [their Ukrainian and Western enemies]."
"Apparently, to many this theory seems plausible, and they are attracted to this as a policy option," the official said, adding, “Clearly after two years, at least some are maybe too zoomed into the daily questions and zoomed out on the strategic."
Every six months, “the Russians can recruit 130,000, but what they can form into units is 40,000,” he said but “they are cannon fodder; you use them once and throw them away.”
The current attrition which is the real rate of which might be even higher, he said, explaining, "The Ukrainians are currently killing or severely wounding more than 50,000 [every half year. We are at the poker table. You need to believe in the statistics.”
Kyiv has claimed that it has "eliminated" more than 351,000 Russian soldiers since February 2022. US estimates from earlier this year put Ukraine's toll at around 70,000 dead and up to 120,000 more wounded.
