NATO official estimates that 40,000 Russian troops have been captured, injured, or killed: report

An anonymous NATO official spoke to media outlets including NBC and the AP, confirming the number. The official said that per NATO’s most recent intelligence assessment, between 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops have died in the conflict.

A senior US official told reporters on a conference call attended by NBC that it is difficult to give casualty counts because the US does not have boots on the ground in Ukrainian territory.

“I’m not going to characterize what the ranges are that we’re looking at because they’re just very broad and we continue to have low confidence in those estimates because we’re not on the ground and can’t see, you know, what’s really going on on a day to day basis,” said the official, who declined to be named.

However, the same official told reporters that Russian forces have faced many logistical issues, and are suffering from low morale.