'Staggering' number of Russian troops killed | General Petraeus

On the topic of the war in Ukraine, General David Petraeus, Former Director of the CIA and Senior US Army Commander, described the Russian death toll as "staggering":

"The UK Ministry of Defence estimated the casualties and the losses in the past week were over 850 per day, which is just staggering. The worst month of the surge in Iraq, we lost 143 coalition men and women and we thought that was for a moment once. So the idea of many, many times that just in a single day, is just again, staggering. To me, to someone who wrote letters of condolence to American's mothers and fathers almost every night that I was privileged to be the commander during the surge in Iraq, the idea of losing over 850 soldiers in a single day is just mind boggling. Really, it's horrific. It is staggering."

General David Petraeus told Carole Walker on Times Radio the west must do everything possible to help Ukraine hold off a Russian offensive:

"The Russians still think that they can out suffer the Ukrainians, the Europeans, and the Americans. And we need to prove them wrong. We need to do everything we can to enable the Ukrainians to hold off this particular offensive, and then to be able in several months to employ the Western tanks and fighting vehicles to conduct their counter offensive, probably in the May - June time frame, to retake if not all that Russia has taken over the course of the last year and perhaps beyond."

The Former Director of the CIA and Senior US Army Commander said Ukraine will inevitably need Western fighter bombers:

"We've got to get to them as quickly as possible and enable the training as quickly as possible on the western tanks, fighting vehicles, wheeled armored, advanced systems, the medium range under 50 kilometer range precision munitions that we're providing for the high mobility until the rocket system, etc. That's to enable the Ukrainian offensive that we anticipate in the May - June timeframe. And then, in the long term, we've got to start thinking now and we are to be fair again, this is a topic of discussion of the ministers, that we are on the road of, inevitable that Ukraine has to go for Western fighter bombers."

"We should recognise the inevitability again, this has to happen. There's no alternative, there aren't any more MiG 29s on the market that we can provide to Ukraine. We need to make that decision to help them down that road, start by training again, pilots and mechanics in particular."

General David Petraeus spoke of the importance of the UK's military on Times Radio, and said the reduction of its capabilities must be addressed:

"The Minister of Defence has raised a very important point. And I think we all should be concerned, given especially that the partnership between the US and the UK military has a component of the special relationship. Having been privileged to command five combat commands over the course of my general answer time alone, the military that was always the most important beyond the US was that of the UK. So it is very significant that the capabilities have been reduced as the Minister has forthrightly noted. And I think it's something that the government obviously has to recognise and address."

On the topic of the Chinese weather balloon shot down over the US, the Former Director of the CIA and Senior US Army Commander said balloons in the sky are not uncommon:

"I think we're discovering that there are vastly more balloons in the sky than we ever realised. The weather services here in the United States launch hundreds, I'm told, as do many others. So I think if nothing else, we're going to get a much better audit of what is floating in the sky. But of course, the first balloon was so massive, so large, I mean, very easily visible to the naked eye, and, frankly, therefore, so blatant, and it really calls into question the process of decision making in China, for carrying out what clearly is a very sensitive, exceedingly provocative and blatant activity. It really raises the question, what is the approval process?"

---

Times Radio brings you the latest breaking news, expert analysis and well-informed discussion on the biggest stories of the day.

📻 Listen now

Follow Times Radio on social:

🔵 Facebook

🔵 Twitter

🔵 Instagram

Subscribe here