A few days ago, a Russian daily newspaper reported about almost 10,000 killed soldiers. American intelligence services also estimate that at least 7,000 Russian soldiers were killed. That would mean that 10 percent of the entire army is dead or wounded. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is anxiously trying to keep the number of Russian dead a secret.
A few days ago, the Russian newspaper ‘Komsomolskaya Pravda’ wrote that 9,861 Russian soldiers have already died in Ukraine. In addition, there are said to be 16,153 injured. These are numbers that the Russian government is jealously withholding. The Kremlin recognizes that soldiers were killed, but that would be a maximum of 500.
It did not take long before the online message of the Russian newspaper disappeared again. Instead, a statement followed in which the newspaper claims it had been hacked: the numbers it published earlier that day were incorrect.
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10 percent killed or wounded
Yet the figures of the Russian newspaper are closer to the figures of American intelligence services than to the figures of the Kremlin. The US calculated that about 7,000 Russian soldiers were killed in just 20 days.
“That is more than the number of American soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan in 20 years,” the report said. If the 14,000 to maybe even 21,000 wounded Russian soldiers are included in the calculation, 10 percent of the Russian armed forces – that is about 150,000 in total – would have been (fatally) victims of the war in Ukraine. In addition, at least three important Russian generals have died.
Are the Russians fighting on?
The question remains whether the Russians have the manpower and courage to continue fighting. Morale is said to have plummeted, according to the same report from the intelligence services.
Stories are circulating that numerous Russian soldiers have left the front. The soldiers left behind would suffer from hunger and cold because they were extremely ill-prepared for the invasion.
Nevertheless, according to experts, one should not crow too early. “We’re just talking about ground troops here,” notes Evelyn Farkas.
Farkas focused on Russia for US security forces during Barack Obama’s presidency. And Russian President Putin seems to be mainly focusing on air forces and attacks. “Such airstrikes camouflage the worse status of the ground forces,” Farkas said.
Where do the numbers come from?
Are the US figures reliable? The intelligence services emphasize that this is only an estimate. They based this estimate on a combination of Ukrainian figures (which are rather high) and Russian figures (which are rather low).
In addition, they carefully analyzed the satellite and video images from the front. For example, the US military knows roughly how many people fit in a Russian tank. In this way, they can calculate how many soldiers are injured or even killed when such a tank is fired upon. The intelligence services’ estimate should be more realistic than the Russian figures based on these analyses.
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