About 15,000 Russians killed in Ukraine, CIA chief says

William Burns tells the Aspen Security Forum that Russian-Iranian co-operation has its limits

An elderly couple stands near a damaged school in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. EPA

At least one person was killed after shelling hit the school, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. EPA

A woman walks past a destroyed market near a railway station in Donetsk. Reuters

Municipal workers clean a street in Donetsk. Reuters

A man passes destroyed buildings in the Ukrainian town of Siversk. AFP

A destroyed school in Siversk. AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman passes by destroyed buildings in Siversk. AFP

A woman's home is repaired by volunteers after being destroyed by shelling in the village of Zalissya. AFP

People fill up water canisters in Mykolaiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP

Grain fields burn on the outskirts of Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo

The mother of Ukrainian serviceman Abdulkarim Gulamov, who was killed in a fight against Russian troops in Kherson, attends his funeral in Kyiv. Reuters

People carry pictures of Mr Gulamov at the funeral. Reuters

Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer in Kharkiv. Reuters

A man walks in front of a damaged school after a missile strike hit the city of Kramatorsk. EPA

A cyclist rides past burnt cars after a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv. AFP

Rescuers and servicemen work at a school building damaged by a Russian military strike in Kramatorsk. Reuters

Sasha, 12, a refugee from Ukraine at the humanitarian aid centre set up at the Global Expo exhibition hall in Warsaw, Poland. AFP

Maksym and Andrii, 11-year-old boys, play with plastic guns at a self-made checkpoint along a motorway in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. AP

A Ukrainian soldier nicknamed 'Oakland' guards his position at the front line in the Kharkiv region. AP

Ukrainians look at destroyed Russian military equipment at an outdoor exhibition near the Church of the Three Saints in Kyiv. AFP

A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia sits in a makeshift bunker near Avdiivka, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. EPA

A DPR militia member monitors a section of the road near Avdiivka. EPA

Ukrainians pass a heavily damaged shopping mall in the city of Kherson. AFP

The rubble of a house in Moshchun village, about 20 kilometres outside Kyiv. EPA

A resident helps a firefighter put out a fire after an air strike in the town of Bakhmut, in the breakaway enclave of Donetsk. AFP

A woman surveys the devastation caused by an air strike in Bakhmut. AFP

Part of a projectile fire by a rocket launcher lies embedded in a wheat field in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. AFP

Members of the public look at a Ukrainian tank destroyed in a Russian attack, in Hostomel, north-west of Kyiv. EPA

Burnt out cars destroyed in Russian attacks are piled up in Hostomel. EPA

Jill Biden, US first lady, left, and US President Joe Biden welcome the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, to the White House. EPA

Miami District Two commissioner Ken Russell, left, and Miami police chief Manuel Morales with weapons collected in the Guns 4 Ukraine initiative, at Miami City Hall in Florida. Guns bought back by Miami will be delivered to sister city Irpin, near Kyiv. EPA

A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to a Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launcher at the front line in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. AFP

A woman walks her dog in front of a block of flats hit by shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. EPA

A Kramatorsk resident peers out of a window lined with tape to reduce the impact of shattering glass. EPA

The damaged windows of an apartment, after shells hit a residential area in Kramatorsk. EPA

Rescuers working on a residential building partially destroyed by missile strike in Bashtanka, Mykolaiv as the Russian war in Ukraine continues. AFP

An Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle lies by the roadside, having been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine. AFP

About 15,000 Russian troops have been killed and 45,000 wounded in the first six months of Moscow's war in Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday.

The conflict is also taking a heavy toll on the Ukrainian military, he said, pointing to losses "probably a little less" than those of Russia.

"The latest estimates from the US intelligence community would be something in the vicinity of 15,000 [Russian troops] killed and maybe three times that many wounded,” Mr Burns told the Aspen Security Forum.

Ukrainian authorities said last month that up to 100 of their soldiers are killed every day in frontline fighting against Russian troops in the east.

"Significant casualties," Mr Burns said.

The CIA director, who was the last senior US official to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before he ordered the February 24 invasion, described him as “relentlessly suspicious".

“He's professionally trained to be a cynic about human nature. He is relentlessly suspicious, always attuned to vulnerabilities that he can take advantage of," Mr Burns said.

The October meeting was designed as a US mission to dissuade Mr Putin from going to war in Ukraine, but Mr Burns said it was obvious then that the Russian leader was moving towards an invasion.

William Burns, Director of the CIA. AFP

“The impression I conveyed back to the president [Joe Biden] when I got home, was that Putin hadn't yet made an irreversible decision to launch an invasion, but was clearly leaning hard in that direction,” Mr Burns said.

Now that Russia has failed to take Kyiv or overthrow the government in its "special military operation", Moscow has switched tactics and committed to a prolonged conflict, Mr Burns said.

Mr Putin's bet is that “he can succeed in a grinding war of attrition, that they can wear down the Ukrainian military … wear down European public and leadership and he can wear down the United States", he said.

But, he stressed: “Putin was wrong in his assumptions about breaking the alliance and breaking Ukrainian will before the war began, and I think he is just as wrong now.”

Asked about Mr Putin’s trip to Iran this week, Mr Burns said both countries need each other at the moment.

"Both are heavily sanctioned countries, both looking to break out of political isolation" he said.

But Mr Burns, a former ambassador to Moscow, said the Iranians and the Russians “don’t trust each other," describing them as "energy rivals and historical competitors".

“There are limits to the ways in which they're going to be able to help one another right now,” he said.