The West has approached settlement on the variety of Russian casualties in Russia’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine. The estimates are staggering.
In accordance to Leo Docherty, U.Okay. Minister of State and Minister for the Armed Forces, “We estimate that roughly 450,000 Russian army personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of 1000’s extra have already abandoned for the reason that begin of the battle. The variety of personnel killed serving in Russian non-public army firms (PMCs) isn’t clear.”
In flip, French International Minister Stéphane Séjourné lately mentioned, “We estimate Russian army losses at 500,000, together with 150,000 deaths.”
Ukraine’s estimate, which all the time appeared far in extra of these of its allies, is 475,300 as of Could 6. It appears to be like just like the Ukrainians have been proper all alongside.
Because the ratio of wounded to killed is normally 3 to 1, it ought to be clear that, if the French are proper, the Russian demise charge is way greater than one would anticipate. That is smart, as Russian commanders proceed to ship poorly educated recruits in human-wave assaults that scale back them to cannon fodder. There are additionally many stories of wounded troopers being left to die in no man’s land.
Docherty’s remark is particularly fascinating because it excludes casualties incurred by the Wagner Group and different non-public army firms. These have been seemingly within the tens of 1000’s. It’s additionally unclear whether or not any of those estimates embrace separatists preventing within the militias of the Luhansk and Donetsk “folks’s republics.” It’s subsequently fairly doable that whole Russian deaths quantity 200,000 or greater, which comes out to 7,692 per thirty days over the past 26 months. At that charge Russian deaths will whole about 261,000 by the tip of 2024.
“All of this for what?” Séjourné requested in an interview. “This may be summed up in two phrases: for nothing.”
Effectively, not fairly. The struggle has enabled Putin to feed his ego and his comrades to develop richer. It’s revealed the depth of Russia’s financial, social, political, and cultural disaster, the duplicity of China and Türkiye, and the hypocrisy of a lot of the International South, which claims to oppose imperialism so long as it’s not Russian.
The struggle strengthened NATO and accelerated Ukraine’s transfer westward. It’s additionally produced a whole bunch of 1000’s of widows and different grieving members of the family. However who cares? Actually not Putin, the Kremlin, and the final workers.
Evidently, life is affordable within the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, simply because it was low cost within the Soviet and imperial Russian armies.
Indifference to life could also be a perform of the Russian army ethos or of Russian tradition.
Both method, the self-slaughter will proceed for so long as the felony Putin regime stays in energy.
Concerning the Creator: Dr. Alexander Motyl
Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and idea, he’s the creator of 10 books of nonfiction, together with Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Potentialities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Flip to the Proper: The Ideological Origins and Growth of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, together with The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000) and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to educational and coverage journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He additionally has a weekly weblog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”
