Russia has lost more than 4,000 tanks during its war against Ukraine, the top US officer in Europe told American lawmakers during a Senate hearing on Thursday.
Moscow launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, hoping for a quick military victory over its smaller neighbor, but instead became bogged down in a grinding war in which Russia has suffered staggering losses.
“The Russians have lost more than 4,000 tanks, which is the inventory almost of the United States tank corps,” said General Christopher Cavoli, the head of the US European Command.
“The scale of this conflict is just awe-inspiring,” he said.
The general was asked during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about the impact if Washington withholds more military and intelligence assistance from Kyiv, which President Donald Trump‘s administration did following a public spat with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.
“It would obviously have a rapid and deleterious effect on their ability to fight,” Cavoli said, noting that Kyiv’s forces depend on US aid to shoot down Russian missiles as well as intelligence to help them target Moscow’s command posts and logistics areas.
The United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia began its invasion more than three years ago, but has not announced a new package for Kyiv since Trump took office earlier this year.
