Russia - threadbanned users in OP

That could depend on the strategy like I said. To remove Russia they would need more but to survive they won't. It's not obvious which is the best, going for the long or short war.

But when you have had the same forces on the front lines for over 18 months that becomes unsubstainable ,they are taking casualties and artillery shortages are taking effect there's a lot lads and women in trenches with everything from TBIs to more physical injuries that's a dangerous situation to keep anyone in

Have to agree, it's a ridiculous number. It would pretty much mean every single Russian soldier who visited Ukraine either died or was injured. There's no realistic way it can be accurate.

Realistically I'd say there's about 500,000 dead on both sides combined, most of the losses chalked up for Russia are indicative of estimates by the Kiev independent,

It could be years before we get any real varified figures for both sides

I never said that there were 1 million Russians casualties, I said that there was approx. 385'000 dead and 730'000 disabled. Thats a very conservative figure for the disabled at 2 injured per 1 killed. 3.1 is nearer to the truth, and in Ukraine during 2022, the ratio recorded was 5 wounded to 1 killed. Check it out.

Naomi O'Leary from the Irish Times blowing the lid on the links between Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, and "alleged" Russian intelligence spy Tatjana Ždanoka.

This week, Russian independent media outlet The Insider published emails that appear to show Ždanoka recounting her activities as an MEP to agents in Russia’s FSB intelligence service.

Mick Wallace and Clare Daly took part in five activities in 15 months with Tatjana Ždanoka on Russian-related themes

The events concerned the supposed persecution of Russian speakers and pro-Russian figures in bordering states, a pet issue of Ždanoka’s and of the Russian foreign ministry, and part of Moscow’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine.

Someone needs to investigate them.

It's the growing isolationist wing of the Republican party. It's not western Europe specifically. They wouldn't want to help Taiwan, South Korea even Canada or Mexico. They have a weird belief that somehow world events won't affect them. For example they will never consider the threat to the US that would occur if China got it's hands on Taiwan and thus most of the worlds high end chip production.

Russia has picked / is picking the ‘low hanging fruit’ when it comes to Getting private Russians to join the army. I suggest that the more it recruits the more resistance it will come across. We have already seen glimpses of that . I know that Putin has his ‘WAYS’ of convincing individuals to join -eg withdraw all payments/services to them ; threaten the whole family in some other way .

The above scenario must be clicking in more and more. The UKr army should therefor be increasingly facing Russian soldiers that DO NOT want to be in the war zone , their low moral would would be getting worse, etc.

@Polar101 Have to agree, it's a ridiculous number. It would pretty much mean every single Russian soldier who visited Ukraine either died or was injured. There's no realistic way it can be accurate.

There are countless blog posts, phone intercepts and other accounts indicating that it is indeed a realistic assertion. Over and over we hear of a group of a hundred Russians going out and only ten comeing back. Or twenty refuse to go "over the top" so they're thrown in a pit by their commanding officers and left to rot.

@jmreire Thats a very conservative figure for the disabled at 2 injured per 1 killed. 3.1 is nearer to the truth, and in Ukraine during 2022, the ratio recorded was 5 wounded to 1 killed.

From the start of this war, and especially in the early stages, numerous (western) commentators were estimating troop losses on the Russian side by extrapolating data from various historic conflicts, and regularly applied the 3-injured-to-1-killed formula in defensive situations. What this never took into account is that the Russians, whether by deliberate choice or sheer incompetence, have applied the principle of "leave no-one alive" to their own troops. "Attack, even if it's pretty certain you'll be killed, or I'll shoot you myself. Wounded and need evacuation? Feck off and die, you're no use to anyone now. Oh, you made it back and need medical treatment? Good luck - the nearest doctor is in Moscow."

So I would be fairly confident that taking the numbers prepared for the initial 2022 invasion plus the successive "scheduled annual mobilisation" cohort plus the numbers of prisoners recruited by Wagner (then the Russian MoD) plus the L/DPR conscripts we'd arrive a total over a million; and out of that, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that 75% never returned to Mother Russia.

Even after the end of hostilities, it'll be really hard to get accurate information on this, especially as there are so many bodies left uncollected (at least those where there's anything left to collect) but I reckon we'll see a very clear impact in the demographic charts in due course. And I think it'll be much worse than expected.

But that's essentially already happening with the various aid packages the majority of the actual money was staying in America and going to American companies, while at the same time US defence companies made record sales to foreign buyers

Whatever about the dead /injured ratio in the current war in Ukraine, in previous wars, where there were accurate counts of both dead and injured (in military's who cared for their soldiers, unlike Putin's regime) a very conservative figure of 2-1 was what was arrived at, but realistically, it would have been 3-1+. There has been reports coming from the Russians, about their own wounded being abandoned, even when they could have been saved. And then you have Putin's cash saving efforts when it came to paying the bereaved families compensation....no body? no cash. So my figures of 365'000 dead, multiplied by 2 = 730 injured., is pretty reasonable. And bear in mind that these figures, based on reports from Ukraine, are possibly out if date by now.

I'm not disputing the total number of casualties - just that I think a huge number of the 730k you'd estimate as "injured" are more likely to be dead, alongside the other 365k.

The thing with Americans is that most of them do see the threat posed by Putin, and support moves to destroy that threat, and they will not ever have better chance than now at a miniscule cost of 3.5 % of their defense budget, and without any boots on the ground. Never mind the fact that most of the cash will be spent in the US, and a lot of the supplied arms would have been considered obsolete and scheduled for disposal in any case. Problem with the rest of the Americans, the anti-support Ukraine brigade is that until US marines start getting killed and American cities getting bombed, they will not be convinced of the threat Putin and his like-minded henchmen around the world pose.

I wouldn't be surprised if a Russian killed/injured ratio is 1:1.

My point is, if in a standard war ratio is 1:3, say 100k killed, 300k injured. In russia, a big part of those 300k injured, would be left to die, or wouldn't get required treatment and then die. Then it would make 200k dead and 200k injured.