General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTens of thousands of Russian families have no idea what's coming their way, yet.
During the Iraq war we had 4,431 soldiers killed in action. We had 31,994 wounded.
In a few weeks the Russian casualties have topped those numbers. I do not know how the Russian government handles their dead and wounded. However, they will not be able to hide the fact their soldiers have been killed from their families. The number of wounded Russian soldiers is staggering. At some point tens of thousands of Russian soldiers will return to their families missing arms, legs, many will be brain damaged, permanently disabled.
The horror of this war has not yet hit the Russian people. Soon, tens of thousands of Russians families will have their lives devastated.
Putin will not be able to hide what has happened for long. As time passes more and more Russians will turn against the war. I have said from the beginning, only the people of Russia can end this war.
Takket
(21,425 posts)Like Hitler, Putin is obsessed with the strength and purity of race. He is a homophobe and a racist.
Hitler, besides the Jews, also waged war on the disabled. I wouldnt be surprised if severely injured Russian soldiers are quietly executed in Ukraine so they can never go home for their weakness to be seen. Instead their families will get whatever the Russian equivalent of a Purple Heart is, and told to never ask questions about how their loved one died or theyll end up in prison like the rest of the traitors.
tanyev
(42,360 posts)Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)Right that takes care of having disabled soldiers.
Also explains the high death rate.
fightforfreedom
(4,913 posts)I don't believe it. There may be some of that going on, but not on a large scale.
BootinUp
(46,928 posts)So there have been on the order of 20k-30k wounded. But I think your logic is correct.
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)The actual death rate as reported, could it include the ones killed by the officers in the field.
fightforfreedom
(4,913 posts)I don't believe anybody knows how many Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded. Common sense tells us the numbers must be extreme. The Russian soldiers have been bogged down for weeks, getting hit with thousands of shoulder fired weapons, drones, artillery, etc. It's a bloodbath.
Igel
(35,197 posts)Some wounded soldiers may be shot in the field because they failed their orders or retreated; it was Soviet practice in WWII, incentivizing dying for the Fatherland because you'd die either way.
Some accounts may just be vilifying the enemy--more than one such account involves Chechens doing the shooting. But some incidents may also involve killing soldiers that they can't evacuate and who would die over the course of the next 12 hours anyway in agony, sort of "putting them out of their misery" in a callous sort of way that actually minimizes suffering.
Some of the reports of overcrowded hospitals also talk about the number of soldiers who die under treatment--evacuated back quickly enough so they arrive alive, but either there's not medical staff to save them or they're too badly injured to be saved.
cab67
(2,963 posts)Russia is a dictatorship, but the commissar system hasn't been re-established so far as I know. I find it hard to believe officers would follow orders to shoot their own men when wounded.
I'm not completely dismissive, but I'd want more documentation.
Irish_Dem
(45,640 posts)They thought it would be a quick invasion and there was no need.
Yes. No official reports. But the rumors keep pointing to this as a possibility.
Would explain the high death rate.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)him and Russia, and will be whisked away in the silence and darkness of the night, the Putin way, never to be heard of again.
Pluvious
(4,278 posts)on Russian aircraft to prevent survival and capture
Takket
(21,425 posts)Link to tweet
?s=20&t=-I6XGgv5WqCdJfYO7fjD4g
LisaL
(44,962 posts)Even if they are against it. They don't make decisions.
Nictuku
(3,571 posts)These Russian soldiers may never be whole again. Same with many Ukraine, but at least their side is Justified, and they are not killing women or children.
I hate War
The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)Hungry people are hard to control!
fightforfreedom
(4,913 posts)Putin knows this, that's why he is so angry. He can't keep this up long term. The people of Russia will rise up, including powerful people around Putin. We have already seen how paranoid Putin has become. He fears assassination.
AllyCat
(16,036 posts)Thanks to the mobile crematoriums burning the bodies of dead soldiers. Hell just say Ukraine has taken them hostage.
peggysue2
(10,811 posts)There are also reports of officers ordering the wounded killed on the field. Add that to the mobile crematoriums and it appears Putin wants to erase the true number of casualties from the public.
Problem is the man can't erase the memories of these soldier's mothers and family members. When these young men don't come home, the questions and recriminations will begin and spread.
Putin cannot hide this debacle forever.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)[link:https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-team-collects-dead-russian-soldiers-to-exchange-for-ukrainian-pows/31761248.html|]
Funerals
[link:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60769509|]
There are lots of links including the NY post. ALL VIDEO COME WITH WARNINGS
A local undertaker had a refrigerated railroad car that he was filling.
peggysue2
(10,811 posts)Ukrainians are disposing of the bodies primarily to prevent an outbreak of disease. But then, I did read the POW exchange for corpses. Bizarre to say the least.
I saw no mention that the Russian dead are being identified. That's certainly not the Ukrainians' responsibility.
There appears to be little concern or care for these Russian soldiers, many of whom reportedly are begging and/or stealing food and supplies.
Cannon fodder.
Horrible, all of it. May Putin rue the day he decided on this disastrous invasion.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,048 posts)Unfortunately, the Russian people are being fed lies by their media about what is happening there, but when their sons come home broken (if they come home at all) they will be able to tell their families the truth as they experienced it.
TeamProg
(5,788 posts)have said that only the people of Russia can end this war.
Igel
(35,197 posts)But at some point the Russian dead and injured will creep up high enough to cause concern that could lead to action.
The other possibility is that Putin will go a bit over the top with some order and enough of the siloviki will realize that they've been in bed with a crazy man and decide to jump out and assert that, really, they're innocent and dispose or sideline the crazy man.
peggysue2
(10,811 posts)That change within Russia will only occur inside the country, provoked by the Russian public. He also stressed how important it is for the West to continue penetrating Putin's Information Iron Curtain bc so many Russian citizens have no idea that this devastating war with Ukraine is actually in progress or that war crimes are being committed in their names.
Revealing the truth on a massive scale could upend everything. For the better.
nvme
(860 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,072 posts)The people didn't ask for it, their Czar did. A Czar most of them didn't want or vote for.
How long will they be willing to give up their loved ones to fight their Czar's war?
Did he really think Ukraine wouldn't fight back? Why doesn't he pull back and reconsider a new strategy? He's already lost 5 Generals. He needs to rethink his aggressive tactics. He should just cancel the war, go to his underground wine tasting room and hide there until the people get a new government. He can hide out in his palace while Russia prepares for a social democracy.
RainCaster
(10,691 posts)PatrickforB
(14,516 posts)and try to propagandize their people to see the enemy as inhuman, monstrous, committers of atrocities.
The Russian people, the Ukrainian people, neither wanted this war.
It is the tragedy of war that the young people who go fight are capable of brutal war crimes, and usually they are the ones who are blamed and punished. However, as with our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Putin's invasion of Ukraine makes him a huge war criminal - he and his high-level supporters are guilty of mass murder, manslaughter, destruction of billions of dollars worth of property, reckless endangerment (attack of nuclear facilities), and a plethora of other ugly, hateful, disgusting crimes. Just like Bush was. And Cheney. And Condi Rice and Donald Rumsfeld.
War is stupid.
The only people who benefit from it are shareholders in companies that manufacture military supplies and weapons. Everybody else gets fucked, directly or indirectly. That is generally why wars happen - out of a desire to enrich a few billionaire parasites with massive profits. You should all note that wars ALSO happen when workers begin to win the battles for good working conditions, better pay, and better benefits. When this happens, the oligarchs generally throw a nice little war.
Remember WWI and the Sedition Act of 1918? It extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds. Because...profits. The Bush family were co-founders, in fact, of what we today know of as the Military Industrial Complex.
But look what happened. Eugene Debs, a true American hero - a champion of unions and workers - was arrested and imprisoned. Because...profits are affected when workers strike and force management to give them their fair share. Can't have that!
In light of that, look what Putin is doing to his staff - arresting some, silencing others, dictating how the Russian media talks about his criminal war.
You're right there, fightforfreedom. The Russian people don't like war any more than our people do. Or any people. Sigh. When, we wonder, will our profit-over-people corporations stop waging war on the environment? The workers? Consumers?
Tune in next week...
IronLionZion
(45,261 posts)plenty of Russian people are against the war and don't trust what their government is telling them
Shanti Shanti Shanti
(12,047 posts)Cannon fodder, his people won't know true numbers, information lockdown
Jacson6
(311 posts)They just never came home and no one knew what happened to them.
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Nothing left.
Inside a tank or other vehicles.
Or the helicopters.