Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
Throughout the war, Russia has made efforts to flaunt its military capabilities beyond Ukraine, like carrying out submarine exercises in the Baltic Sea and increased undersea activity in the Atlantic, flying military aircraft with China near Alaska, conducting nuclear readiness drills, and attempting to test new long-range ballistic missiles.
However, Moscow’s military demonstrations abroad come against the backdrop of its setbacks in Ukraine; what Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to be a swift and decisive victory has become a bloody conflict inching closer to the three-year mark.
Western intelligence estimates that Russia has suffered well over 600,000 casualties since the start of the war in Ukraine and is averaging more than 1,200 losses each day — a trend that is likely to continue. Meanwhile, Moscow is thought to have lost a massive amount of military equipment, including thousands of tanks and armored vehicles.
Cavoli explained during the Atlantic Council interview that while Russia’s ground forces have suffered severe losses fighting in Ukraine, Moscow has taken notable strides to build them back up.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File
“The military force — the ground force — inside Ukraine today is significantly larger than the ground force that was there in the beginning of the war,” Cavoli said, “so the Russian army has actually grown during this period.”
“Now, there’s some quality problems, and some of the equipment may not be the newest, but that again is localized to the ground forces,” he said. “Russia has a plan to reconstitute that ground force and to deploy it, again, on the borders of NATO.”
“It’s a plan they’ve made public that they’ve talked about, and it’s something we have to take very seriously,” he added.
Cavoli’s remarks this week signal his latest warnings of the continued Russian threat. The American general — like other top US officials — has said on multiple occasions over the past few months that Moscow is still dangerous and is making up for its wartime losses.