Russlands „massive“ Verluste in der Ukraine steuern das Land auf einen Bruchpunkt zu, sagt der oberste NATO-Beamte

***From Business Insider’s Jake Epstein:***

Russia’s military is suffering heavy losses fighting in Ukraine, with up to 25,000 soldiers killed a month, NATO’s top civilian official said this week, calling the carnage „unsustainable“ for Moscow.

„The Russians, at the moment, are losing massive amounts of their soldiers thanks to the Ukrainian defense,“ NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told European lawmakers at a forum in Brussels on Tuesday. He said that 20,000 to 25,000 troops are dying each month as the war drags on.

„I’m not talking seriously wounded. Killed.“ Rutte clarified. He compared the incredibly high losses to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, where an estimated 15,000 of its soldiers were killed over a period of more than nine years.

„Now they lose this amount or more in one month,“ he said of the number of Russian soldiers killed every month. „So that’s also unsustainable on their side.“

Russia has not disclosed official casualty figures, but Ukrainian and Western estimates paint a grim picture for Moscow.

Britain’s defense ministry said in an intelligence update last month that Russia had suffered more than 1.1 million battlefield casualties since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, with an estimated 1,000 soldiers killed and wounded every day.

[Read more about how Russia’s losses suggest a breaking point is coming here.](https://www.businessinsider.com/massive-russian-losses-ukraine-pushing-it-to-breaking-point-nato-2026-1?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-ukrainewarvideoreport-sub-comment)

Good. Keep it up until it breaks completely. 

I’ve been edging myself for so long now.

It always feels like Ukraine should just hold on another quarter and then the unravelling will be a fact.

I’d like to ask Rutte how he can say this as Russia is amassing hundreds of thousands of troops in Belarus for an unknown purpose, and our government officials has spoken the past week of a near-term danger to EU territories _especially_ if there is peace in Ukraine, because that would imply a diversion of resources.

These claims all seem in conflict with each other.

Hoping 2026 is the year that this news story finally comes true.

Slava Ukraini!

Well your now hearing the casualty is gone up significantly.

I don’t understand how the Russian people aren’t revolting at 160,000 confirmed dead soldiers. How are families reconciling this? There are at least 1000s more killed that we don’t know the names of. And 900,000 wounded. I understand meat wave mechanics in WWII because they were being invaded but it’s just crazy for today. 

Well…. On the upside (for Russia), the medical hospitals (and rehab clinics) are probably starting to get caught up. No need to patch Igor back together or build prosthetics, if he’s dead.

Russia’s „massive“ losses in Ukraine – means you’re making a sarcastic comment that the losses are actually not massive

Russia’s „massive losses“ in Ukraine – means it’s a quote of someone else saying that the losses are massive

Grammar 101.

The issue I have with this is that, yes Russia might reach a breaking point but at some point, so will Ukraine, especially with Russia trying to force that with the attacks lately. Without proper support from it’s allies, even if Russia was at breaking point, Ukraine doesn’t really have the equipment to take advantage of that fact due to allies being unpredictable with their hesitation.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Ukraine. They have defanged Russia and the Chinese will not allow them to use nukes. They will definitely lose any capacity to sell oil if they so much as try and mobilize them. Guaranteeing their defeat.

4 years of this same rhetoric. As long as the current Russian president is in power, there will never not be enough meat for his waves.

We are past the point of no return. This will all come apart in the Spring when Putin rather then die alone goes nuclear and millions die in the exchange.

How many times are they going to say this?