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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Poor Combat Medical Care blamed for heavy Russian losses in Ukrain
2023-07-11
BRUSSELS (AP) — Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead.

Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tubingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true human cost of its invasion of Ukraine.

To do so, they relied on a statistical concept popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality. Drawing on inheritance records and official mortality data, they estimated how many more men under age 50 died between February 2022 and May 2023 than normal.

Neither Moscow nor Kyiv gives timely data on military losses, and each is at pains to amplify the other side’s casualties. Russia has publicly acknowledged the deaths of just over 6,000 soldiers. Reports about military losses have been repressed in Russian media, activists and independent journalists say. Documenting the dead has become an act of defiance; those who do so face harassment and potential criminal charges.

Despite such challenges, Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian Service, working with a network of volunteers, have used social media postings and photographs of cemeteries across Russia to build a database of confirmed war deaths. As of July 7, they had identified 27,423 dead Russian soldiers.

"These are only soldiers who we know by name, and their deaths in each case are verified by multiple sources," said Dmitry Treshchanin, an editor at Mediazona who helped oversee the investigation. "The estimate we did with Meduza allows us to see the ’hidden’ deaths, deaths the Russian government is so obsessively and unsuccessfully trying to hide."
Posted by:Besoeker

#9  ^ the old timers said the same thing about Korea. Take a look at a nighttime satellite photo of the peninsula, someone did win. Just not instant gratification.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-07-11 21:15  

#8  Oh is Russia still losing this war? Haven't heard anything about those glorious victories being paid for by my taxes, my kids taxes and my grandkids future taxes in a long while...
Posted by: Regular joe   2023-07-11 17:46  

#7  True patriot's duty -- who knew? --
Extends beyond death... "You're not through!
Propaganda requires
That when soldier expires
He be wearing opponent's tattoo."

"Lie down and be counted," or, Uncle Him wants YOU!
Posted by: Zorba Hatfield9094   2023-07-11 13:28  

#6  #5 I don't recall my readings of Russian military history that the upper management was ever concerned about what happens to cannon fodder outside of not upsetting the peasants. Whether nihilism or socialism, they seem culturally conditioned to accept it.

Ukrainian use of their soldiers as cannon fodder is on NATO's tab.

Good luck explaining the difference.

Posted by: badanov   2023-07-11 13:02  

#5  I don't recall my readings of Russian military history that the upper management was ever concerned about what happens to cannon fodder outside of not upsetting the peasants. Whether nihilism or socialism, they seem culturally conditioned to accept it.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-07-11 11:35  

#4  Said Russian military correspondent Aleksandr Sladkov:

The statistics of the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot be named right now, because the approaches to our positions are littered with the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. No one evacuated them and did not consider them thoroughly.
Posted by: badanov   2023-07-11 09:58  

#3  From what I have seen from both sides and independent sources, it is the battlefield care that is so horrible for Russia. Western nations and Ukraine treat their soldiers quickly, have tourniquets, quick clot and pressure bandages and most are trained in combat lifesaver courses. The Russians don't. They may drag a wounded man back and not give aid other than a bandage or leave him there for a while before it is safe. If the Russian survives to get back to the medical units they actually stand a pretty decent chance of survival. But for many Russian wounded, it is that first golden hour is lost before they get treated.
Posted by: DarthVader   2023-07-11 09:43  

#2  It's not the 40 years of Camel smoking that killed you, it was the lack of proper medical care and treatment.

US Government Logic-101. You took the class, now see the movie.
Posted by: Besoeker   2023-07-11 07:36  

#1  a statistical concept popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic called excess mortality.

So, if they died of wounds then their care, not the war, is blamed?

In Absence of Honest Official Figures, Study Suggests 50,000 Russian War Dead in Ukraine So Far
Posted by: Skidmark   2023-07-11 05:58  

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