Since the attack on Ukraine, one thing has become clear: Russia is covering up the numbers of fallen soldiers. How many compatriots lost their lives in the brutal war of aggression is only rarely announced – and then far too low.
This whitewashing is apparently also causing massive frustration in their own army. This is from a published phone call of a Russian soldier intercepted by the Ukrainian secret service.
The man, who appears to be speaking to his father, says: “Yesterday I called my unit, they have a dead man. A boy died.”
The father then grumbles about the reporting in Russia’s state media: “On TV they say: ‘Everything is damn great, we destroy this, we destroy that.’ Shit, this pisses me off. I don’t even want to turn on the news anymore.”
The father rages: “Shit, tell us how many of our people are dead! To hell with it!”
The son replies that “people” have also stopped following the news.
He then calmly speaks of rumors that 80,000 Russian soldiers have died since the major attack in February.
Unusual! Because: In its last announcement on September 21, the Kremlin spoke of just 5,937 dead soldiers.
By way of comparison, in the same month British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace (52) declared that the Russian army’s total casualties exceeded 80,000, of whom around 25,000 are said to have been killed.
The Ukrainian army now even speaks of more than 84,000 “eliminated” Russian soldiers. Two weeks ago, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley (64) said that around 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded.
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley (64)
That means: Although the Russian state propaganda only works with numbers that are clearly too low, the western assessments seem to get through to parts of the population.
Pressure on Putin increases
Due to the high number of fallen soldiers, dictator Vladimir Putin (70) is under massive pressure: More and more people from the population are mourning their dead sons and fathers. Parts of the military feel wasted in daring offensives.
Earlier this month provided about a Complaint letter from the middle of the combat zone cause a stir. Accordingly, Putin’s troops are said to have lost around 300 men within just four days.
The soldiers were dead, wounded or missing, according to the letter from members of the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet. The addressee was the governor of the Primorye region, Oleg Koshemyako.
The accusations were clear: once again, commanders had thrown the unit “on an incomprehensible offensive” just so that the commanders received bonuses or were named “Hero of Russia”.
It is obvious that if the Kremlin confirms the high number of victims, it would be tantamount to admitting a fundamental strategic error. And the myth of the targeted “special operation”, as the Ukraine war is still euphemistically called in Russia, would be buried for good.