Zero Hedge/Epoch Times: 400,000 Ukrainians Killed In Action Explains A Whole Lot
How many casualties has Ukraine suffered? How many causalities has Russia suffered?
Estimates of Ukrainians killed in action (KIA) range from a low of just over 30,000 to a high of over 400,000.
Obviously, these two estimates can’t be reconciled. And it really, really matters to the people of Ukraine which one is closer to the truth. While 30,000 deaths is tragic, anything approaching 400,000 KIA and the accompanying hundreds of thousands of causalities is a humanitarian catastrophe that makes talks of continuing offensive operations next year, or even believing in a stalemate, wishful thinking that will result in even more fruitless Ukrainian deaths.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The Ukrainian source that I trust the most tells me that after 22 months of war the Ukraine Army has suffered 200,000 KIA. But what is not included in this number are those who are MIA (missing in action).
My own cousin had a Facebook page dedicated to those who were looking for their loved ones who are MIA. She stopped posting early this year when she and her family moved to Canada. She estimates there are about 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers who are currently MIA, and the hope that she has and for those who are searching for their loved ones is that many of these missing soldiers are POWs in Russia. One of my Russian sources told me last month that he estimates there are about 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers who are currently POWs.
As for Russian casualties. That is a hard number to figure out. No one I know in Russia wants to talk about it, and the Russian Ministry of Defense is giving no details or numbers. But there is one group that is trying to keep track. Mediazona, in collaboration with BBC News Russian service and a team of volunteers, are making an effort to count the dead. I personally think Mediazona are underestimating the true numbers by a half (if not more), but they are reporting what they have even though they are always under constant pressure from the Russian government to stop (link here). Mediazona's website is here .... Russian casualties in Ukraine. Mediazona count, updated.
2 comments:
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/18j4p0n/ua_pov_the_28th_brigade_of_the_228th_battalion/
"...our command just throws us like a cannon fodder while pretending for us to be a special forces, not showing the BRs (combat order documents, without which you won't get paid in case of wound or your family won't get money if you are killed), not relaying any information to personnel, deceitfully threw people into Bakhmut by saying that they were special forces, while they had no training, no vehicles, without having any means of medevac, the command is not in any way interested in preserving the personnel. Quite the contrary, they are most interested in fucking us up, to kill people, as to what reason - we think that it's because there are some shady things going on, the battalion has about 100 dead souls (old term - means that people are listed as serving in battalion, but physically are not there or dead, but their salary is still being paid for others to steal)."
The main way for mid level commanders to squirrel away enough cash to get their families out of the country is by sending a quarter of their men on an unreported suicide mission and then pocketing their salaries for months/years.
So you have the publicly reported "official" number of KIAs, which is a deflated version of the "real" number of KIA that only the general staff know about. And then you have the number of KIA that also includes the 100k+ that only the mid/low level commanders know about, but it never gets aggregated because none of these guys are going to volunteer that information while they're still making bank off it.
THAT'S RIGHT,
I mentioned this, on this blog, back in October. It's called Ghost soldiers.
We had the same problem in Iraq. Guys die or go AWOL or are MIA and they are not taken off of the unit rolls because the chain of command pockets their salaries.
The Info ops guys made fun of what I said back then, but that is what those blob minions do, to try to de-legitimize the unvarnished truth when they encounter it. (remember in the future, ....that too, .... is a standard blob tactic)
But the Ghost soldier ploy has four major negative effects:
a. The rolls of the unit show the unit fully staffed, while being at low strength. ( remember that when you see news reports of Ukie troop strength.
b. The widows and families back home get screwed out of the pay and death insurance.
c. It WILL continue to get worse as the Ukrainians continue to lose the war. (. everyone scrambles for more money to get the hell out before the end approaches)
d. It further de-legitimizes the army leadership, the political leadership. ( because they allow this crap) and weakens the will to fight.
Post a Comment