Last edited Sat May 4, 2024, 05:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Shows Putin’s lost over 470,000 orcs to date. The numbers aren’t quite comparable, but US WW2 fatalities throughout the entire war were only 407,300 (an additional 670,801 wounded). Throughout the entire 17 years of US military presence in Vietnam, fatalities were 58,220 (all causes).

In just over two years, Putin’s total casualties have exceeded our WW2 fatalities and he has been suffering a burn rate of ~1000 troopers per day, for months that I know of (read: That I remember from keeping track. Probably has been longer).

If we figure a 3:1 WIA:KIA ratio - which is the number I’ve seen used as about average for combat, that’s roughly 350 KIA per day (I rounded up, sue me), and 650 wounded. At the above burn rate, that’s approximately 127,750 KIA per year with an additional 237,250 wounded.

However, that ~1000 per day could be the approximate number of the Russians’ battlefield KIAs - I don’t know one way or the other. If these are all KIAs, obviously, my calculations are way off, on the low end.

Putin’s ego is so big, he doesn’t care how many men he throws into the meat grinder, so long as he wins. He could be president of a Russia emptied of men 18-65 and he would. Not. Care.

Edit to add: The French estimate that Russian casualties have hit the 500,000 mark, with about 150,000 being KIA. That fits almost perfectly with a 3:1 WIA to KIA ratio. So, since the Wagner Group in particular and the Russian army in general, resorted to Zerg (human/meat wave) attacks against Ukrainian defensive positions, RU casualties have skyrocketed. Granted, some days casualties are fewer, some days they are higher than 1k, but either way, it’s still an unsustainable burn rate. And the number of permanently disabled soldiers has to be staggering…and staggeringly expensive.
Link to info from the French: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/3/2238773/-Ukraine-Invasion-Day-801-Russia-has-had-500-000-casualties-including-150-000-fatalities?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

And the economy is failing due to the loss of working age men, as well as losing foreign workers who fear being forced into conscription.

That was an entirely different ball of wax that I didn’t even want to get into. But bursting water lines resulting from systems that are multiple-decades old with next to no maintenance*. This has happened in several places and not just caused people to have no water, but frozen lakes inside buildings and no heat because the heating system used water.
Then there’s a major damn failure resulting in countless homes being destroyed…and the government’s emergency management ministry is nowhere in sight.

And those are just the latest examples that immediately come to mind.

*Lack of regularly scheduled maintenance seems to be a theme in Russia. Whether it’s in the civilian sector or the military, shit is falling apart as a result. I wonder how much of this is the result of umm…something uniquely Russian…versus corruption and skimming money by Putin’s pals doesn’t help.

I've got no sympathy for them either. Their suffering is minor compared with what they've inflicted on Ukrainian civilians over the past 2+ years. And why should Ukrainians be the only ones who suffer in a war that was initiated and is perpetuated entirely by russia.

At least all these disasters are of Russia’s/Putin’s own making, and not Ukraine targeting civilians. I’m glad Zelenskyy is only hitting legitimate targets in Russia.

and accuse Ukraine of "terrorist attacks" and piss and moan over any civilians that are collateral damage, even as they use cities like Belgorod to launch missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets. And when they kill or wound Ukrainian civilians, they frame it as "revenge" for attacks on their military infrastructure, as if that were even permissible under the laws of war.

I very much admire the self restraint on the part of the Ukrainians.