Putin's army that he spent two decades building has been largely destroyed in Ukraine

Vladimir Putin's army has been largely obliterated amid Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine - despite him spending two decades creating it.

Its situation has now been described as one of 'strategic defeat', just over six months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, escalating the war which began in 2014.

George Barros, a military analyst with the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), told Insider: "Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a strategic defeat.

"So far the Kremlin has not been able to achieve its strategic level objectives and it has incurred significant costs. Russia's military is going to have to be rebuilt."

Putin spent two decades building his army. Credit Alamy / Kremlin Pool

The analyst explained that the army is now largely 'destroyed' and 'will have to be rebuilt' if Russia wants to recover its pre-Ukraine war military might.

Newsweek reports that 50,000 Russian troops - including many high-ranking officials - have now lost their lives.

"The conventional ground army ground force that the Kremlin has spent the last two decades creating - seeking to create a modern military - that force has been just largely degraded and in a large part destroyed in the past six months of war in Ukraine," Barros added.

"It's very true to say that the conventional Russian ground force has taken a significant beating in Ukraine. It will have to be rebuilt."

Barros said that the sheer number of losses have been so extreme that it will take 'a generation' to restore them, and it will 'have a long-term strategic impact on the net assessment for Russia's conventional military'.

Ukraine is winning the ongoing war with Russia.

The British Defence Ministry also confirmed the heavy losses being suffered by Putin's army, including the 1st Guards Tank Army and Western Military District units, which have been described as 'severely weakened'.

The ministry said: 'It will likely take years for Russia to rebuild this capability.”

Twitter / DefenceHQ

But Russia has not just suffered a high human cost from the war. It has also lost a significant amount of military equipment, including tanks.

The situation is now so bleak that the attacking country has resorted to using obsolete equipment from the Soviet era.

As reported by Insider, prior to the current war, Russia was widely regarded to have the second most powerful military in the world, behind the US.

Robert Orttung, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, told the news outlet that the Russian military is 'not nearly as powerful as we thought it was'.

He added: "Now, basically unable to achieve their goals, unable to show that there's integration between the guys fighting on the ground, the air force, and the other units - it's definitely going to knock them down."