The brutal full-scale war the Kremlin unleashed against Ukraine three years ago today has come at an enormous cost to Russian society. Meduza and Mediazona can now reveal that an estimated 160,000–165,000 Russian soldiers, officers, contract troops, mobilized personnel, and other fighters have been killed since February 2022. This statistical estimate of excess male mortality over the course of the full-scale war is based on comparing and analyzing various records. Namely, confirmed casualty lists compiled by volunteers and inheritance case data from Russia’s National Probate Registry. However, this estimate does not include foreign nationals who fought for Russia, such as residents of Luhansk, Donetsk, and other occupied Ukrainian regions. It also accounts only for fatalities, excluding wounded soldiers — even those severely injured. Despite these limitations, this remains the most reliable available assessment of Russia’s total military losses. Here’s what the data reveals about the war’s trajectory thus far.
This is irrelevant. Death of their fellow citizen is not of interest to russians (beyond polemics and fetishizing WW2). Stalin killed more russians than Hitler and yet most russians think his rule was justified.
10 million russians could be killed by their own government and the average russian would not care. They would never do anything about it, but million plus have, out of their own free will, joined a war of imperial conquest to kill, rape and torture.
A strong majority (if not an overwhelming majority) do not value human life. I am not saying there is anything inherent about russians that makes it so. They are fully capably of change, humanism, democratic governance, however, the choices they make clearly suggest they have no interest in such matters. And we have to take a sober attitude towards russians, treat them as they are and not as we think they are or how we want them to be.