The Russian military's casualties have exceeded 1.5 million dead and wounded, while the current rate of recruitment is not enough to offset losses on the front, former CIA director David Petraeus said in an interview with SpyCast.
According to Petraeus, Russian forces have lost around 46,000 soldiers killed or wounded in the last month alone.
Russia, meanwhile, is recruiting about 30,000 new soldiers a month. This means that its monthly losses exceed the recruitment by about 16,000 soldiers.
"Remember the Russians have already lost 1.5 million dead and wounded. That's more than the United States lost during the entire World War II," Petraeus said.
He believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is approaching the point where he will no longer be able to raise enough troops to sustain combat operations on the current scale.
"There will come a point when Putin will no longer be able to recruit additional soldiers in the necessary numbers. Furthermore, they are poorly trained anyway. Essentially, they are cannon fodder," Petraeus said.