True losses in the Ukraine war revealed: Russia takes drastic step

Merkur True losses in the Ukraine war revealed: Russia takes drastic step Natascha Berger • 1 hour • 3 minutes reading time High blood toll A data leak at the Russian statistics office may have revealed Russia's true losses in the Ukraine war. But a reaction from the Kremlin is not long in coming. Moscow - The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has already claimed many victims. The blood toll is immense on both sides, both among the soldiers and the civilian population. Both countries are keeping quiet about their own losses - but a data leak should now provide insight into the high price Putin's troops are actually having to pay in the Ukraine war. In order to keep the losses secret, the Kremlin is now taking a drastic step. Figures on losses in the Ukraine war are difficult to verify independently from both Moscow and Kiev. Above all, official figures are usually only available on the other side's losses, although it is assumed that these are usually somewhat exaggerated - while figures for one's own casualties, although rarely, are likely to be understated. Data leak at Russia's statistics office: High losses for Putin in the Ukraine war revealed However, the figures are collected statistically. Even in the Kremlin, as a recent data leak at Russia's statistics office Rosstat revealed. At the end of June, data on Russia's losses in the war in Ukraine became public, providing information on the number of deaths in Russia and mortality from external causes. After evaluating the figures, the independent news agency Important Stories estimated that at least 71,000 Russian soldiers have fallen since the beginning of the Ukraine war in February 2022. Losses in the Ukraine war: Figures on war deaths in Russia made public - shortly afterwards, the Kremlin deletes the data Valdimir Putin and other Kremlin politicians are unlikely to have liked this data leak on Russia's losses in the Ukraine war. Just a few days after the figures were made public, the Kremlin classified its mortality data as secret. This was noticed by Russian demographer Alexey Raksha, who himself once worked at the statistics office. According to Newsweek, Rkasha found that Rosstat had deleted two columns of data - precisely those that had revealed details about the extent of war deaths in Russia. The figures obtained through the data leak cannot, however, be independently verified. According to other studies, such as those by the independent Russian news agencies Mediazona and Meduza, Putin is likely to have lost around 120,000 Russian soldiers since the start of the war by the end of June. Data from the country's national estate register was used for this report. Ukraine, on the other hand, speaks of at least 500,000 seriously wounded or killed Russian soldiers. Meanwhile, Putin is trying to use software to prevent conscripts from fleeing. Kharkiv offensive costs Putin many soldiers - Ukraine also suffers high losses in the war As Newsweek reports, a not insignificant proportion of the Russian war deaths can be attributed to the Kharkiv offensive that began in May. Recently, a NATO officer also spoke of "astronomical" losses on the Russian side during the offensive, which went anything but as planned for Putin's troops. Even if some Ukrainian villages were probably captured. It is also difficult to determine how high the losses on the Ukrainian side are. Just recently, Kiev suffered enormous losses in the battle for a Dnipro bridgehead in the southeast of the country. Although President Selenskyj said in February that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war, other estimates, for example from US intelligence services, assume more than twice as many soldiers have died, according to the BBC. (nbe)