The Russians are losing more and more soldiers in the Ukraine war. Exactly how many was unclear for a long time. An analysis by the US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) now comes to the conclusion: The total number of Russian fatalities in the first year of the war is likely to exceed all fatalities in all 16 military actions in the country since World War II combined.
The number of soldiers killed each month over this period was also 25 times higher than in operations in Chechnya. In the two Chechen wars, Russia suffered between 13,000 and 25,000 deaths.
In addition, the number is 35 times higher than in the ten-year war of the Soviet Union in Afhanistan. The bottom line is that the Russians have five times as many casualties as Ukraine. Around 70,000 Russian soldiers have now lost their lives.
Also among those killed in the Ukraine war are numerous elite regiments, which are increasingly being replaced with poorly trained recruits and poor equipment. Troop morale is correspondingly low.
According to media reports, Russian teenagers would now have the same life expectancy as teenagers in third-world country Haiti. This leads to more and more defensiveness.
For example, seen in a video circulating on Telegram: commanders ordering soldiers at gunpoint to run across open terrain. The soldiers refuse, one says: «You can lock us up. For how long – five, seven, ten years?”
The commander should fight himself, he demands. “But for what? For whom? Life is more important.”