New US Intel Leaks Show Worsening Russian Military Infighting

A fresh leak of classified Pentagon documents suggests worsening infighting among the ranks of the Russian military as the war in Ukraine extends into its 14th month.

The additional documents, which did not surface along with the materials that came to wide public attention last week, claim the Kremlin is in chaos over disagreements with its military death toll in Ukraine.

According to the document, the FSB estimated that Russia has suffered nearly 110,000 casualties among its ranks. In comparison, U.S. officials estimated Russia's loss to be somewhere around 200,000.

A new document titled "Russia/Ukraine – Assessed Combat Sustainability and Attrition" estimated Russia's losses at between 35,000 to 43,000 killed and 154,180 wounded. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Thursday said it estimated Russia's losses to be around 180,590, including 540 soldiers killed over the past day.

The document did not specify how many casualties the Russian Defense Ministry has so far reported. However, the FSB security service, according to the leaked information, accused officials of not counting deaths among Russian National Guard, Wagner mercenaries and fighters fielded by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"The FSB accused the Defense Ministry of obfuscating Russian casualties in Ukraine," the New York Times, which viewed the newly leaked documents, reported. "[The finding] highlights the continuing reluctance of military officials to convey bad news up the chain of command."

Interestingly, the assessment in the leak suggested that losses among the Rosgvardia, Russia's National Guard, would "probably hinder Moscow's attempts to fully secure all of its annexed territories," per BBC News.

The leaked documents also claimed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's infamous Wagner group, and Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu met on Feb. 22 to resolve the dispute that stemmed from the Russian military allegedly refusing to provide Wagner fighters ammunition for the war.

The International Business Times could not independently verify the documents. The Times also noted that multiple U.S. officials said they "could not, and would not, independently verify the documents."

The U.S. previously acknowledged that the first set of documents released last week were authentic Pentagon materials. However, it noted that some information in the documents appeared to have been altered for disinformation purposes.