Leaked Russian comms: Fighters for Russia dead (incl mercenaries): 17,265

[ColinC]

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=G1lkd3hv_jP4Y2QWd366zg

Victor Kovalenko
@MrKovalenko
A former internal affairs minister of #Ukraine @AvakovArsen shared the intercepted Russian military summary for March 18: Rus. Army troops killed 12,814. Private company Liga (former Vagner) troops killed 4,451. Total number ofservicemembers killed at war in Ukraine: 17,265.

[lagomorph777]

1. Good news! Let's step up supply to Ukraine and make this number really blow up.

So to speak.

[ColinC]

2. Plus POWS and non fatal casualties, they truly have been losing a thousand a day.

If they are there for 3 months they will have lost nearly a hundred thousand soldiers. And for what?

[lagomorph777]

3. Can't hide the war forever with that going on.

[Lovie777]

4. OMG . ...

does that include the ones they cremated, chopped to pieces, etc.

Russians also killed their wounded.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. I've seen pics of bodies lying in fields getting eaten by dogs.

They don't always retrieve their dead. Can't be that good for morale.

[BootinUp]

5. Wasted. Nt

[Emrys]

6. I believe this isn't far off the previously published Ukrainian estimates,

which may give an indicator for what's reliable in the fog of war.

[ColinC]

7. It is surprisingly worse...

Absolutely insane.

[Wounded Bear]

8. I suspect this might be low...

Russians have been historically cavalier with regard to human life, even of their own troops.

Given the estimates of original strength of forces, they're approaching 20% killed. Assuming even more wounded, that 30% range of casualties that many experts think is a tipping point for loss of morale and unit cohesion is pretty close, and one might surmise they are in trouble.

Unfortunately, their artillery and long range weaponry seems to be operating well.

[getagrip_already]

9. Well, historically ......

If you want to see really high body count numbers, look at civil war battles. Or more recently iran-iraq (pre us involvement). Single battle dead were in excess of 10,000 troops.

I'm not sure what the all time record was, but it must have been in the tens of thousands of dead in single battle conflicts.

[getagrip_already]

10. 250,000...

Found this.....

The single bloodiest day of combat ever was probably the Third Battle of Nanking during the Taiping Rebellion. The battle was a three day affair and there were probably over a quarter million casualties all told.

[Wounded Bear]

11. IIRC, Antietam was tops with about 17,000 dead in one day...

Gettysburg had roughly 27,000 across three days for the max casualties of the American Civil War.

The British suffered 60k casualties in the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 IIRC. I think about 25-30% of that was KIA.

The Battle of Verdun in WWI had over a million casualties when you add both sides together.

During Barbarossa in 1941, the Germans captured over 600k Russians in a month long battle of encirclement.

I've read some about wars.

[uponit7771]

21. +1,

[maxsolomon]

12. If accurate, that's absolutely awful.

A complete catastrophe for the people of both countries.

The US never approached those numbers in 20 years in Iraq & Afghanistan (I'm not counting suicides).

All because of 1 man's paranoia.

[ColinC]

13. Might not be accurate

Total causalities might be much worse. Deaths might be slightly better for Russia.

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=EZTJjY9mdg0zI7cTC8lWFA

[maxsolomon]

14. That feels more realistic

2:1 WIA v KIA.

Still, almost 10k dead. The Ukraine numbers have to be just as bad if not worse.

[ColinC]

15. 26,000 casualties ( wia and kia) is still very, very bad.

Much worse than Ukraine military estimates.

[maxsolomon]

16. Cannon Fodder.

Many are conscripts, supposedly.

I saw an anecdotal stories of Russian troops from an ethnic minority who thought they'd be fighting "foreign occupiers", not Ukrainians.

[ColinC]

17. Makes me sick...

I really hope Putin is held responsible for this.

[ColinC]

19. Oh and I think the link I just shared does t mention the Wagner group

Last edited Mon Mar 21, 2022, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)

The OP shows 4,000 of them and other mercenaries were killed.

14,000 dead plus 16,000 wounded comes down to about 30,000 casualties. Or twice what Ukraine has estimated.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. I think that one may not be counting Wagner group casualties.

They're not a regular part of the Russian military.

[ColinC]

27. Yeah

I figured this out a bit later. It seems if you add in the Wagner group, the deaths are higher.

14k dead plus 16k wounded comes down to twice what Ukraine has estimated.

[BlueIdaho]

18. And the Russian people think the worse thing about this war is

They can’t buy sugar? Well, buckle up comrades - the real tragedy is just starting.

[jeffreyi]

20. Wow. That's a boatload.

Especially for the short (so far) time frame.

[PortTack]

22. Crazy..bookmarking for later reference

[Crunchy Frog]

23. God do I ever hope that's true. And the number of wounded would be far greater.

I'm kind of surprised at how bloodthirsty I've gotten in response to this war.

[Torchlight]

25. No lightning fast, six-week campaign for Putin.

I believe he thought sheer force of numbers would immediately overwhelm their defenses and break their moral, or flank the Ukrainian positions from the south with a seaborne invasion.

I s'pose he'll have to reschedule his jig under the Champs-Élysées to a different month, or year... or place.