Some 40,000 civilians have also been killed or injured in the war, Milley said. “There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering,” he added. The Washington Post could not independently verify the figures.
Milley’s figure is a sharp increase from the Pentagon’s August estimate of 70,000 to 80,000 Russian casualties. For comparison, the Soviet Union said in 1988 that it lost more than 13,000 soldiers, and that more than 35,000 were injured, in Afghanistan during the war it fought there.
It comes as the Biden administration has encouraged Ukraine to be more open to talks with Russia amid growing unease in the West about the cost of a protracted conflict that has caused the price of energy and foodstuffs to skyrocket.
Officials in Kyiv say they are open to negotiating with Russia but have set preconditions, including the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s territory, an agreement on compensation from Russia for war damage and security guarantees from other countries.
As The Post has reported, the Biden administration’s outreach to Ukraine on peace talks has included a request for officials there to drop their public refusal to negotiate with Russia’s leader, President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has also signaled it is open to talks, but its own preconditions appear to be at odds with those of Ukraine: After Russia illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine, Putin said that “the only way to peace” is for Ukraine and the West to recognize that the people of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia “have become our citizens, forever.”
Despite the differences in demands between the two sides, Milley said the winter could create opportunities for peace negotiations, with Russia ordering its forces to withdraw from the strategic southern city of Kherson on Wednesday. But first, he said, both sides had to recognize that a complete military victory was “maybe not achievable” in this conflict, “and therefore you need to turn to other means.”
Ukrainian officials have suggested that Russia could merely be pretending to withdraw from Kherson in a bid to trap Ukrainian troops into a fight over the city. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, warned Wednesday that Ukraine saw “no signs” of a unilateral withdrawal.
Actions speak louder than words. We see no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight. A part of the ru-group is preserved in the city, and additional reserves are charged to the region. 🇺🇦 is liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) November 9, 2022
U.S. officials have also signaled they are cautious about reports of a Russian withdrawal. “There’s some indications that the Russians intend to withdraw to the east bank of the Dnieper River,” Colin H. Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said Tuesday. “We’ll have to see how that plays out.”
But Milley on Wednesday said of the withdrawal: “The initial indicators are they are in fact doing it. They made the public announcement they’re doing it.”
He said it could take weeks for Russia to withdraw its troops — 20,000 to 30,000 in Kherson — and suggested the withdrawal could be a strategic move “to preserve their force to reestablish defensive lines south of the [Dnieper] river, but that remains to be seen.”
In the meantime, Milley said, there is “a window of opportunity for negotiation.”
“When peace can be achieved, seize it,” he said. “Seize the moment.”