Muristek
Kyiv, March 24
NATO estimated on Wednesday that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in four weeks of war in Ukraine, where fierce resistance from the country's defenders has denied Moscow the lightning victory it sought.
By way of comparison, Russia lost about 15,000 troops over 10 years in Afghanistan.
A senior NATO military official said the alliance's estimate was based on information from Ukrainian authorities, what Russia has released — intentionally or not — and intelligence gathered from open sources.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by NATO.
Ukraine has released little information about its own military losses, and the West has not given an estimate, but President Volodymr Zelenskyy said nearly two weeks ago that about 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed.
When Russia unleashed its invasion on February 24 in Europe's biggest offensive since World War II, a swift toppling of Ukraine's government seemed likely.
But with Wednesday marking four full weeks of fighting, Moscow is bogged down in a grinding military campaign.
Zelenskyy — who has riveted the world's attention with ad hoc videos and speeches to legislatures seeking military aid for his country — seized on the anniversary to plead for people around the world to gather in public on Thursday to show support for Ukraine, saying the war breaks the heart of "every free person on the planet."
"Come to your squares, your streets. Make yourselves visible and heard," Zelenskyy said in English during an emotional video address to the nation, recorded in the dark near the presidential offices in Kyiv.
"Say that people matter. Freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters." Speaking in Russian, Zelenskyy appealed to Russians "to leave Russia so as not to give your tax money to the war."
Tens of thousands of Russians already have fled their country since the war began, fearing an intensifying crackdown on dissent that has included the arrest of thousands of antiwar protesters and suppression of the media.
Zelenskyy, who will speak to NATO members by video on Thursday, also said he is asking the alliance to provide "effective and unrestricted" support to Ukraine, including any weapons the country needs to fend off the Russian invasion.
With its ground forces slowed or stopped by hit-and-run Ukrainian units armed with Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops are bombarding targets from afar, falling back on the tactics they used in reducing cities to rubble in Syria and Chechnya.
In an ominous sign that Moscow might consider using nuclear weapons, a senior Russian official said the country's nuclear arsenal would help deter the West from intervening in Ukraine.
"The Russian Federation is capable of physically destroying any aggressor or any aggressor group within minutes at any distance," Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the state aerospace corporation, Roscosmos, said in televised remarks.
Putin has warned the West that an attempt to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine would draw it into a conflict with Russia.
Western nations have said they would not create a no-fly zone to protect Ukraine.
Zelenskyy appealed to Western countries to stay united in the face of Russia's efforts to "lobby its interests" with "some partners" to bring them over to its side, and noted during his national address that Ukraine has not received the fighter jets or modern air-defence systems it requested. He said Ukraine also needs tanks and anti-ship systems.
"It has been a month of defending ourselves from attempts to destroy us, wipe us off the face of the earth," he said.
The NATO official said 30,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded.
In its last update, Russia said on March 2 that nearly 500 soldiers had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.
Ukraine also claims to have killed six Russian generals. However, Russia acknowledges just one dead general.
The figures from NATO represent the alliance's first public estimate of Russian casualties since the war began.
The US government has largely declined to provide estimates of Russian or Ukrainian casualties, saying available information is of questionable reliability.