Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, says that according to Russian Ministry of Defense numbers, 9,861 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine and 16,153 were injured. The last official Russian KIA figure, on March 2, was 498. But then a very short time later the article was pulled and replaced by a 404 error. Then it was reposted without any numbers.
What lends some credibility to these numbers is that that is in the ballpark of many Western estimates for Russian fatalities, including the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported for the first time that the Kremlin is preparing its population for a “long war” in Ukraine and implementing increasingly draconian mobilization measures. The General Staff reported the Russian military commissariats of the Kuban, Primorsky Krai, Yaroslavl Oblast, and Ural Federal Districts are conducting covert mobilization measures but are facing widespread resistance.
The Russians have lost several top commanders killed. It is believed their deaths are related to use of unsecured communications, allowing Ukrainian forces to identify their locations. This is the result of the Russians having destroyed the 4G cell phone towers in Ukraine, thus preventing them using their secured cellphones.
Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky was the first high-ranking loss for the Russian military after being reported to have been killed by sniper fire. He was the commanding general of Russia's 7th Airborne Division and deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.
Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the 8th General Army of the Southern Military District of the Armed Forces, was killed when Ukrainian forces struck an airfield in Chornobayivka, near Kherson Airport. Major General Vitaly Gerasimov was shot dead in Kharkiv. Major General Andrey Kolesnikov, commander of the 29th Combined Arms Army, was killed in a Ukrainian ambush. Major General Oleg Mityaev was killed at Mariupol.
General Magomed Tushaev, a Chechen warlord, was reported to have been killed in a battle in Ukraine after a 56 tank convoy of Chechen tanks were destroyed near Hostomel. Another warlord reported killed is Vladimir Zhonga, who led the Sparta Battalion, a Neo-Nazi military unit from Donbas that has the Kremlin's backing, who was reportedly shot dead in Volnovakha (so much for Putin “de-nazifying” Ukraine).
Lt. Colonel Dmitry Safronov, commander of the 61st Separate Marine Brigade was killed during fighting when Ukrainian forces recaptured Chuhuiv. Lt. Colonel Denis Glebov, Deputy Commander of the 11th Separate Airborne Assault, was killed while taking part in a special operation in Donbas.
Guards Colonel Konstantin Zizevsky, cmmander of the 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment, was reported killed in the attack on Antonov Airfield the first day of the war. Guards Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Agarkov died alongside Zizevsky. Colonel Sergei Sukharev, of the 331st Guards Parachute Assault Regiment from Kostroma, and his deputy Major Sergei Krylov were also killed in the airborne assault on Antonov Airfield; Sukharev was responsible for the Ilovaisk massacre of 2014.
In 20 years in Afghanistan, the US suffered 1,910 combat deaths, and more than 20,000 troops were wounded. In Iraq, the US had 3,519 combat deaths and 30,222 injuries. In a matter of days or weeks, Russia has had more troops killed or wounded than the United States had in 20 years in Afghanistan.
It’s fascinating that someone posted the leaked number. According to Marina Ovsyannikova, the TV producer who protested the Ukraine invasion in the middle of a live broadcast last week, a majority of Russians are against the war on Ukraine. It would appear she is not the only one working in Russian media trying to get the truth out to the Russian public.
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What is horrifying to me is that despite these losses and reported "on the ground" chaos, the missiles just keep coming and the annhilation proceeds. And Erdogan and Chi are the best hope for mediation?? Complex, no easy answers, and no end, it seems-- short of the unthinkables!! And we are the planet that kills our children. I am afraid I will wake up one morning soon to hear that those newborn babies of surrogate Moms being cared for in the basement somewhere have been bombed to smithereens. What a monster he is and we won't stop him for fear of what he will do next. We had better not wait too long. As the Ukraine Ambassador to the US said yesterday on Face the Nation...if we see a criminal beating someone on the street, we don't stand on the sidelines fearfully watching to see if he will kill the person or us. We call the police. We stop and punish the bully. We help the victim.
How to get Putin and the Russians (and perhaps Syrian mercenaries, and Checheyns) out of Ukraine? How to stop the bombs raining down and missile strikes which appear be originating beyond Ukraine's borders, or coming from planes? Erdogan has purchased weapons from Russia for heaven's sake. And Turkey is a member of NATO. Complicated does not begin to describe this terrible situation. PLUS anywhere from 200,000 - 500,000 euros a DAY are going to Russia for gas and oil so Europeans (Germans particularly) can cook food, and turn the heat on. And NO ONE either in Europe or in the US is talking about measures to CONSERVE fuel / drive at lower speeds, use less gas and oil, carpool, etc. There was a time during WW II there was gas rationing. We're in a time that is calling for human solidarity against Putin's aggression. He's counting on the West being soft on solidarity.