this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 54 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Isn’t it like 350k deployed and 315k dead? Those are insane numbers.

Edit: 315k killed and wounded… not sure of the ratio

[–] [email protected] 52 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Afaik, it's 315k casualties, not deaths, which basically means "unable to serve". This includes dead, injured, captured, deserted etc. Also keep in mind that this is an Ukrainian estimate which might be inflated.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, you’re right it is killed and wounded. But, these are US intelligence numbers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

The US has no reason to not tell the truth… wait

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The ratio is almost always 3:1 in all cases. And I think the US has corroborated Ukrainian numbers very closely in the past, so it's probably a fair guess that 100k Russians have died.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I thought in Ukraine it was closer to 2:1 due to poor Russian medical training and supplies.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Let's be real, if you're in power in Russia do you want a lot of wounded returning home from this war? Every soldier returning from the front is a potential threat to your narrative.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Expensive too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

3:1 of 315k is 80k deaths

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

351k according to today's numbers, crossed 350 two days ago.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is that always how casualty is defined??? I had no idea

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

TIL. Thanks for the power up!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I remember being surprised when I learned that casualty does not necessarily mean fatality. I think it’s a common misunderstanding.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

basically means "unable to serve". This includes dead, injured, captured, deserted etc.

Ah, I didn't know that. I now envision it sometimes going like:
"Poor Steve, a casualty of war."
"What do you mean, he snuck back home and is watching TV in his mom's basement!"

[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago

The accuracy of these numbers is always going to be debatable and the true numbers likely never known but this is what Ukraine is saying what Russian losses are like

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I can't believe we had a Cold War with those guys.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago

Their stockpiles and equipment were neglected over years. They once held a significant strength in their military. But it was systemic corruption that eroded their status as a military superpower. That's clearly a myth at this point, no doubt..

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I mean, they both have/had rampant corruption and cronyism, so they aren't actually that different. Russia just stopped pretending to be communist.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think they are referring to the relative societal priority of maintaining a large modern fighting force. USSR was investing and developing bleeding edge weapons tech. Russia has just been sitting on that same stockpile.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Ehhhh... if you look up the history, they weren't THAT successfully industrious. They had LOTS of engineering screwups all in the name of the motherland. They helped win the war NOT with rampant successful technological advancement, but by throwing insane numbers of people towards Germany.

Not to say they had none, just that there were many, many flaws and shortcutted projects that were never the less still greenlit to much disaster and economic waste.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I'm talking about the 60/70s where they were legitimately on par (arguably more successful) with their space-tech. Advanced weapons and space-tech are absolutely linked, the entire space race was a thin facade over demonstrating the capacity to deploy novel weapons systems. And, I can't stress this enough, the USSR dominated in that realm.

I guess what I'm saying is that modern day Russia being a paper tiger is pretty valid... This has been the consensus for a long time in the West. Everything that we are seeing aligns with the rational assessment of military professionals.

That doesn't mean this has ALWAYS been the case. The assessments of those professionals at the time, was that the Soviet military in the 60s-70s had the capacity to pose a legitimate military threat to the western world.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Sorry are you referring to WWII in a discussion about the cold war, which really wouldn't ramp up for at least 5 years afterwards and would be mostly characterized by the 60s-80s and saying "if you look at the history"??

Maybe you should take a gander at some history books buddy, it's not like 10 years between medieval wars where technology would barely have inched forward, instead being an age of innovation where we went from planes to space travel in <50 years with the Soviet engineering beating the US at 2 out of 3 steps of the space race lmao.

Not to say the soviet Union was some glorious infallible place or anuthing, I just think your comment is absurd and kinda irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Right, the soviet union wasn't some glorious infallible place. Thanks for agreeing with me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That wasn't your comment tho, dumbfuck, your comment was that the soviet union wasn't industrially successful during the cold war. I disagree with you and think the justification you provided for your (shitty and baseless) argument was irrelevant to the discussion. Feel free to prove otherwise, but until then, enjoy deluding yourself into thinking you've won the argument because your ego can't handle the notion of being wrong. Good day sir.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

Right, the soviets had problems, thanks for agreeing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

What we had was an excuse to spend unlimited money on weapons, destabilizing anti-business foreign governments, and demonizing unions and social programs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

The Soviet Union included a dozen nations not held by Russia today (one of whom was Ukraine), and Russia has suffered rampant corruption and neglect since the fall of the union 30 years ago

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Putin confirmed 300,000 in a speech about a week ago.