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“There are lots of rumors about President Putin’s health, and as far as we can tell, he’s entirely too healthy,” he quipped, adding that it was “not a formal intelligence judgment.”
In the lead-up to the invasion and in the months that have followed, Putin has been portrayed as more eccentric and irrational. Widespread speculation that he is sick, possibly with cancer, has continued to circulate as the war drags on.
Burns said about 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war in Ukraine. Up to 45,000 more have been wounded, he said, citing the latest U.S. intelligence on Russian losses. “Ukrainians have suffered, as well — probably a little less than that, but … significant casualties,” Burns said.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the top U.S. military officer, told reporters Wednesday that Russian forces have taken just six to 10 miles of new territory in the past 90 days after focusing their efforts on seizing eastern Ukraine. “The bottom line is, the cost is very high, the gains are very low, there is a grinding war of attrition,” he said.
“Advances are measured in literally hundreds of meters” on some days, Milley said.
The United States is also considering sending more advanced weapons to Ukraine, amid Kyiv’s fears that Russian forces could get further entrenched if the war drags on into winter, making counterattacks more difficult. “After winter, when the Russians will have more time to dig in, it will certainly be more difficult,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Tuesday.
Those weapons could include warplanes, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the U.S. Air Force chief of staff, said Wednesday. Brown didn’t say what type of aircraft but said the options include American-made fighter jets and those manufactured in Europe.
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