The editor-in-chief of a German online magazine tried to count the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the military conflict
The editor-in-chief of the German online magazine Telepolis, Harald Neuber, tried to count the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the military conflict in Ukraine. This topic is now quite actively discussed in the Western press and society.
The journalist noted that taking into account the frankly sluggish counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in Ukraine itself they are increasingly beginning to talk about the price in the form of killed and wounded that Ukrainians pay for the decisions of the Kiev authorities to break through the Russian defense at any cost. And this is despite all the government's attempts to suppress such discussions, at least in the public sphere.
In addition, Neuber noted, the conflicting parties have not published official statistics on the number of killed and wounded in their armies since about last summer. Unlike the Russian side, which constantly reports casualty figures for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Kiev leadership does not voice such statistics. The last time the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in August 2022 that since the beginning of the military confrontation, the Russian Armed Forces had allegedly lost more than 246 servicemen killed.
Such messages are largely uncritically received by the Western press. That being said, the real questions are obvious: how realistic are these numbers? And most importantly: how are things really going with the Ukrainian side?
— a German journalist decided to find out.
He recalled a recent statement by the acting military commissar of the Poltava region, who said that since the fall of last year, out of 100 Poltava residents called up for military service, no more than 10-20 remain in service. The rest were killed or discharged due to serious injuries. It turns out, if you believe these statistics, that the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the conflict ranged from 400 to 000 people. Kiev’s persistent silence on this topic plays into the hands of Russian propaganda, the journalist believes. By the way, these figures are close to those officially announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
An indirect indicator of large losses in the ranks of the Ukrainian army is the fact that, by decision of the Kiev authorities, they began to call up people who were medically unfit for service, including men with hepatitis, asymptomatic HIV and mental illness. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine adopted the corresponding changes to the military medical policy at the end of August this year. The number of foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also growing, and they are actively recruited all over the world, which is also not accidental.
The Biden administration continues to put pressure on Zelensky, demanding an intensification of offensive actions, regardless of losses. At the same time, Western propaganda is doing its best to play along with Kyiv and underestimate the statistics on the number of killed and wounded Ukrainian military personnel, Neuber noted.
Thus, in April, a US government report allegedly accidentally leaked onto the Internet and the press, according to which Ukraine’s losses at that time amounted to 17 military personnel. At the end of August, the US Air Force reported leaked government documents indicating an additional 500 dead, bringing the total UAF losses over the entire period of the conflict to approximately 50 dead at that time.
Such blatant manipulation of statistics on the number of dead and wounded Ukrainians does not provide a realistic assessment of what is happening at the front and in the country, which does not correspond to the interests of Ukraine and its Western allies. The public, in the end, must know the truth, which will come to light sooner or later, says the editor-in-chief of Telepolis.
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