Russia’s Losses Counted – Estonia Sees Putin’s Army Bleeding by 2026

Estonia touts formula for victory in Ukraine: Fight until no Russians are left standing Tallinn expects 10,000 people to be affected per month.

TALLINN – The Estonian government is counting the casualties. Therein lies the solution for them Ukraine war — and its immediate end. In an argumentative essay, it emphasizes that in conflict with Estonia Russia In the end, even more Ukrainian soldiers will remain on the battlefield Vladimir Putin The army will be defeated – that’s what the reports are now Kyiv Post. Estonians rely on a consensus in the West that after two years at last, Russia will be too weak militarily to pose a serious threat to NATO. They see it as a guiding principle for future military action in the West.

“Therefore, the goal should be to achieve a rate of at least 50,000 Russian troops killed and seriously wounded every six months, which would continue to degrade the quality of the Russian armed forces and prevent Russia from rebuilding its offensive combat power. Ukraine So far so successful,” etc Kyiv Post Quoted from a publicly available report. The Baltic nation has been a partner in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 2004 — and fears Russia. That is why the Estonian Ministry of Defense shows in its paper Kyiv Post Represents the teeth of the aggressor Vladimir Putin.

The paper follows a specific arms delivery from the smallest NATO member: a recent aid package worth nearly 80 million euros includes a large sum. Javelin anti-tank missiles and machine guns, small arms ammunition, various land and water vehicles and diving equipment. As announced by the Estonian Defense Ministry, Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has pledged to support Ukraine with 0.25 percent of GDP per year for the next four years as Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umjerov; The country generates the lowest GDP of the three Baltic states at 29 million euros. According to its own data, with the latest package, Estonia has provided almost 500 million euros in military aid to Ukraine since 2022, or more than 1.3 percent of GDP.

Controversial strategy: Estonia wants to support the global order with toughness

The government in Tallinn has been given a tailwind by its belief that the Russian defense budget is horribly bloated and that Russia is hiding its military stranglehold from the world. Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, casts himself as a friend of NATO’s tough stance toward Russia — he argues that it must do all it can to pulverize Vladimir Putin’s invasion army after the current winter war.

Callas is at odds with Western audiences. Austrian army historian and colonel Markus Reisner repeatedly asserts that the West is supplying Ukraine with enough weapons to hold the front line against Russia, but not enough to defeat the Russians. According to him, this is due to the West’s strategic interest in keeping expansion in check: the West does not want to crush Russia, but rather to put Russia in its place.

That is why the West moves from one delivery to the next. According to Reisner, “neutrality and moderation”. As every country that can waive or intervene in sanctions against Russia, such as China, Brazil, India or Pakistan, pursues its own interests, the world order will be at risk if Russia is freed from its intrusion. However, Gallas estimates that the Russian war economy is clearly weaker than Western experts estimate.

Controversial estimate: How many players can Putin really raise?

German political scientist Carlo Masala expects another wave of mobilization in Russia after Vladimir Putin’s re-election. Masala estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 men could be re-employed; This means that Putin will once again have a completely renewed military force for Ukraine. Carlo Masala is generally very cautious about the course of the war in Ukraine. He sees the “pace” of the Ukrainian offensive against Vladimir Putin’s troops as a turning point approaching: “Russia has transitioned to a war economy and produces tanks and ammunition on a large scale. It is capable of throwing a lot of stuff forward. It leaves something to be desired in terms of quality. But the old Russian strategy That is, quantity becomes quality over time,” the political scientist writes Hamburger Abendblatt.

In fact, even Russian commentators have calculated a gap of about 300,000 troops, based on Kremlin announcements about the number of troops currently stationed in Ukraine and the number of troops stationed there before the attack. This figure should account for actual Russian losses. This will inevitably lead to a morale drain for Putin’s invasion army.

Kaja Kallas wants to give NATO food for thought and take a clear counter-position to Western observers: Kallas describes Russia’s recruitment and military production capacity as low, so it can’t buy enough equipment to last from month to month. 10,000 soldiers ahead. Russia has already paid a heavy toll in blood in the last two years, and this battle may continue. In the article, Kallas summarizes that time is of the essence for Ukraine: the war will last so long that the Russians will not be able to hold their positions, let alone launch counterattacks.

Controversial debate: Military officials demand to go “all out” against Russia

Callas expects the war in Ukraine to end in 2026 – he agrees with Western observers; They also doubt whether the war will end next year. Callas, however, requires more commitment from NATO. An Estonian government report suggested the West should seize 330 billion euros in frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war efforts. It should increase the production of military goods, throw high-tech weapons into the war and train the Ukrainian army. In this regard, the Estonian newspaper starts from the place where the NATO allies made their first attempts.

Here, too, the Estonian paper offered no fundamentally new insights – the Western arms industry, again stumbling, has long been a publicly controversial subject – as did Austrian Colonel Markus Reisner. tagesschau.de I made a clear call for the West to transition to a war economy: “I said it shortly after the war began. When it was clear that the Russians were beginning to recover from the initial shock of defeat. Even then I could see a warlike situation developing. You can’t have a war on the sidelines, you Everyone should go in.