Putin's war sees one million troops dead & wounded as death toll mounts

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Russia has paid a high price for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine after Ukrainian officials revealed they have lost one million young men and women since the conflict began
More than one million Russian servicemen and women have been killed as Vladimir Putin's gruelling war in Ukraine continues to roll on. Forty months of war have earned the despot just 20 per cent of Ukraine's total territory and one million battlefield casualties - which include slain troops and those too seriously injured to continue fighting.
Thanks to Ukraine's defiant resistance to its eastern neighbour, Russia has paid a heavy price for its invasion - with the Ukrainian General Staff announcing that one million have been killed since February 24, 2022. The majority of those soldiers (628,000) were slaughtered in the past six months.
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Experts fear the huge losses are unlikely to deter Putin from his path due to the cult of human sacrifice that seems to run through Russian society.
During the Second World War, Russia offered up between 27 and 42 million civilians and soldiers to defeat the invading Nazis. It's likely that Putin sees the current sacrifices as necessary to achieving greatness.
University of Bath politics lecturer, Dr Stephen Hall, believes that Putin will continue sending young Russians to the slaughter as the conflict is heading in the right direction.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: "Putin believes he's winning the war. The Russian army is moving forward like it or not. He believes that he can outlast the West, that the West is weak."
Russia is using a strategy similar to the one used in World War Two - one of "meat assault" - which involves flooding the front line with overwhelming numbers, Dr Hall added.
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The strategy comes straight out of the playbook of his bloodthirsty Soviet predecessors, like Stalin, who believed in sending "ten men to every rifle" - meaning "you pick up the rifle of a fall soldier. You keep going, you get shot. You're next. Your buddy picks up your rifle."
In time, the Soviet army would eventually breach their enemy's frontline. And because the Russian people "know how to suffer", it's easy for Putin to send them to the meat grinder, Dr Hall adds.
In many countries, the loss of a million young men and women could cause a breakdown in civil society, but Russians are kept placid because the Kremlin lies to them, according to Dr Hall.
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He said: "They're simply not going to be told, especially in the poorer areas where Russia is recruiting - like Buryatia and Bashkortostan and elsewhere."
It comes as Washington puts pressure on Kyiv and Moscow to bring about an end to the conflict, but Dr Hall says he thinks they're unlikely to build any lasting peace any time soon.
Even in the event that Ukraine does concede some of its sovereign territory, Putin will not agree because he feels he's on a sacred mission to defend the motherland against the West.
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Dr Hall said: 'Putin has been very clear. They're not fighting Ukraine. Ukraine is the battleground. They're fighting the West.'
"Ukraine has been forced to fight a war with two hands tied behind its back — a war that NATO would never fight."
Putin hopes Ukraine will simply accept whatever Russia offers. This is because Russia is going to keep feeding the war machine with its citizens, and the West is becoming less invested in it.
Just yesterday, more than 1,140 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded, which shows just how comfortable the warlord is with sacrificing his own troops.
According to the Ukraine's General Staff, the lives of 1,000,340 Russian personnel have been lost since February 2022. As well as the dead, this number also includes those so seriously wounded they could not return to fight.