Russia's military has grown in both size and strength since invading Ukraine in February 2022, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa said Tuesday.
Speaking at the Air & Space Forces Association's annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Air Force Gen. James Hecker offered his outlook on Russian forces.
"Russia is getting larger, and they're getting better than they were before. … They are actually larger than they were when [the invasion] kicked off," Hecker told reporters, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Hecker spoke one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China's.
It's the third time Putin has expanded the army's ranks since sending his military into Ukraine.
"Russia is going to be something that we're going to have to deal with for a long time, no matter how this thing ends," Hecker said, VOA reported.
Putin's forces have suffered heavy casualties in Ukraine.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has estimated that more than 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the war began.
"The rates of casualties that they're experiencing are staggering," Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday.
"So, certainly in that regard, it's not surprising that the Russians would be looking at ways to augment their force going forward. Whether or not that's sustainable from an economic standpoint, from a readiness standpoint, those are all good questions but best addressed by the Russian military itself."
One Russian expert suggests Putin's order means Russia is losing the war.
"This is an open signal from Vladimir Putin that his army and his military is in trouble and doesn't have the resources to maintain troops in the field," William Pomeranz, a senior scholar at the Kennan Institute, told VOA.
Ukraine has shot down more than 100 Russian aircraft since Moscow began its unprovoked invasion. Hecker said that number is much larger than the number or Ukrainian aircraft lost.
"So what we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will, and when that happens, you have a war like we're seeing today, with massive attrition, cities just being demolished, a lot of civilian casualties," Hecker said.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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