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One million and counting: Russian casualties hit milestone in Ukraine war

45 points by rawgabbit 1y ago

Trasmatta 1y ago
Another million lives, thrown into the meat grinder of war for no good reason. Just as another war starts.
stavros 1y ago
So, in all, 1.5m casualties. I guess they're just numbers in a spreadsheet as far as Russia's leaders are concerned.
doener 1y ago
Looking at Syria and Iran and Russia's passivity in these conflicts, I now wonder whether Russia is still a regional power at all in the wake of the massive losses it suffered in the Ukraine disaster. It lost its status as a military world power in the first weeks of the invasion.
- bpodgursky 1y ago
  Russia came in unprepared for this war, and is not prepared for a traditional peer conflict, but is building out a LOT of drone production capacity which will now be decisive in regional wars. It's not going to save Iran from US stratospheric bombers, but yes the capability to throw 200 de-facto cruise missiles and 4,000 FPV drones a day at the front lines is a huge threat to anyone unfortunate enough to share a border with Russia.
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    I was reading that Russia’s economy is on the brink of recession. Any thoughts on what would push it to failure? Failed economies have a hard time waging war. https://apnews.com/article/russia-economy-recession-ukraine-conflict-9d105fd1ac8c28908839b01f7d300ebd https://apnews.com/article/russia-economy-recession-ukraine-...
    - doener 1y ago
      If things continue as they are, there is good reason to believe that this point will be reached automatically: https://youtu.be/gpyLQvNsUw4 https://youtu.be/gpyLQvNsUw4
    - pydry 1y ago
      It actually already collapsed in 2022-2023 according to projections from March 2022: https://theconversation.com/the-russian-economy-is-headed-for-collapse-178605 https://theconversation.com/the-russian-economy-is-headed-fo... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-faces-biggest-economic-collapse-170531447.html?guccounter=1 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-faces-biggest-economic... https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/03/vladimir-putin-economy-sanctions-swift-fallout/623330/ https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/03/vlad... nm, Im sure the more up to date projections are accurate and the projections from 2022, 2023, 2024 and early 2025 were abberations.
      - toomuchtodo 1y ago
        Russian Banks Fear Debt Crisis Is Coming as War Strains Economy - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-26/russian-banks-fear-debt-crisis-is-coming-as-war-strains-economy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-26/russian-b... | https://archive.today/3DUEG https://archive.today/3DUEG - June 26th, 2025 > Tensions among Putin’s top officials over risks to the economy spilled into the open at the flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week. > “We are on the verge of slipping into a recession,” Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said during a panel discussion in which Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina argued the economy was experiencing a necessary cooling. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov acknowledged “we’re going through a cold spell now.” > Putin made his position clear in a speech the following day. “Some specialists, experts, point to the risks of stagnation and even recession,” he said. “This, of course, should not be allowed under any circumstances.”
    - bpodgursky 1y ago
      Russia is a petrostate. The only thing that would critically damage Russia's economy is persistently low oil prices. In the near term, the only way to get there is probably 100% uncapping US production, maybe holding our nose and getting Venezuela's production back up.
Animats 1y ago
“Some people die in road accidents, others from alcohol – when they die, it’s unclear how. But your son lived, do you understand? He fulfilled his purpose.” - Putin, to the mother of a dead soldier. The Economist reports that the war is causing a boom in some small towns in Russia. There's a big death benefit paid to the families.
- Trasmatta 1y ago
  > He fulfilled his purpose That "purpose" being dying for Putin's pointless and evil war. Fuck Putin.
arctics 1y ago
[flagged]
- bmgoau 1y ago
  You forgot the last bit: Russia takes over Ukraine, deposes it's government, kills more people, erases it's culture and identity, snuffs out one of the few nascent democracies. Sends a message to all over regional and mid powers: if you want to just take over another country, even a democracy right on Europe's doorstep, you can. China invades Taiwan.
  - pydry 1y ago
    This message was sent long ago by America that if your country declares itself "exceptional" any and all war crimes are acceptable. All Putin had to say to get the global south to look the other way was "we're not different". Which was true.
- doener 1y ago
  >NATO countries are fighting Russia using Ukrainian soldiers What a grotesque reversal of the facts.
- arctics 1y ago
  ugly truth is so much better than a beautiful lie.
pydry 1y ago
>The estimate aligns with a recent study by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which puts Russian military deaths at up to 250,000 and total casualties, including the wounded, at over 950,000. Ukraine has suffered very high losses as well, with between 60,000 and 100,000 personnel killed and total casualties reaching approximately 400,000. I searched for the CSIS study to see what their methodology was and found a video https://www.csis.org/analysis/evening-one-million-russian-casualties-us-have-slower-growth-truckin-and-more https://www.csis.org/analysis/evening-one-million-russian-ca... ...which explained: * Nothing. Nada. Literally zero evidence of any kind combined with literally zero analysis. * An assertion that this number "proves" that it's not true that "Russia holds all the cards". They appear to want to rebut Trump's opinion. * The final comment was about the military assistance bill and how important it was that it be passed. There was also some random facts that look like they might support the original claim but which emphatically do not (e.g. amount of land taken). The average Russian would of course also be equally inclined to believe their military industrial complex's PR lobby group when it makes unsourced claims like this. That's coz the average Russian is not too smart.
- csislktok 1y ago
  I don't see a video on the site you linked, but I do see a subheader >In That Number ... 1 million With a link to https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukrai... which has a PDF: https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2025-06/250603_Jones_Battlefield_Woes_0.pdf?VersionId=swtz75pqU3Del_5mBFQfV5dYKCS8J_gz https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2025-... Which has a pageful of sources for the numbers
  - pydry 1y ago
    It has pagefuls of references to claims about lost tanks (also dubious), land taken (probably accurate), comparison of losses to historical wars etc. which are the random facts I was referring to. Nothing about how the American military industrial complex's lobby and this war's biggest profiteer by far pulled that impressive 1 million number from tho. Dont worry those weapons did tons of good though. Super successful. As your article points out - it's imperative you keep buying.
drweevil 1y ago
This is dubiously sourced and defies comparisons with other conflicts. These casualty figures are at the same level as total US casualties in World War 2. It beggars belief that a regional war can produce such casualties. By contrast total US casualties in Vietnam were about 211,000, and Korea, about 140,000. Given the sources for these Russian casualty figures there is a very high likelihood that these numbers are grossly misstated.
- TiredOfLife 1y ago
  https://200.zona.media/ https://200.zona.media/ Absolute floor of dead russians is 111 thousand Korean war had 2.5 million military and about the same of civilian casualities. And it was 20 million country fighting 9 million country. Population of russia is 140 million. And Ukraine 37 million.
  - apothegm 1y ago
    Yup, and casualties includes injuries that take people out of action, not just deaths. A badly sprained ankle is a casualty. So total casualties will be significantly higher than that 110K.
- Aloisius 1y ago
  The US and Russia do not conduct wars the same way. I'm not sure comparing them is a valid sanity check.
- aaron695 1y ago
  [dead]
amai 1y ago
"One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic." -- Joseph Stalin

45 points by rawgabbit 1y ago

Trasmatta 1y ago

Another million lives, thrown into the meat grinder of war for no good reason. Just as another war starts.

stavros 1y ago

So, in all, 1.5m casualties. I guess they're just numbers in a spreadsheet as far as Russia's leaders are concerned.

doener 1y ago

Looking at Syria and Iran and Russia's passivity in these conflicts, I now wonder whether Russia is still a regional power at all in the wake of the massive losses it suffered in the Ukraine disaster. It lost its status as a military world power in the first weeks of the invasion.

bpodgursky 1y ago
Russia came in unprepared for this war, and is not prepared for a traditional peer conflict, but is building out a LOT of drone production capacity which will now be decisive in regional wars. It's not going to save Iran from US stratospheric bombers, but yes the capability to throw 200 de-facto cruise missiles and 4,000 FPV drones a day at the front lines is a huge threat to anyone unfortunate enough to share a border with Russia.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  I was reading that Russia’s economy is on the brink of recession. Any thoughts on what would push it to failure? Failed economies have a hard time waging war. https://apnews.com/article/russia-economy-recession-ukraine-conflict-9d105fd1ac8c28908839b01f7d300ebd https://apnews.com/article/russia-economy-recession-ukraine-...
  - doener 1y ago
    If things continue as they are, there is good reason to believe that this point will be reached automatically: https://youtu.be/gpyLQvNsUw4 https://youtu.be/gpyLQvNsUw4
  - pydry 1y ago
    It actually already collapsed in 2022-2023 according to projections from March 2022: https://theconversation.com/the-russian-economy-is-headed-for-collapse-178605 https://theconversation.com/the-russian-economy-is-headed-fo... https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-faces-biggest-economic-collapse-170531447.html?guccounter=1 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-faces-biggest-economic... https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/03/vladimir-putin-economy-sanctions-swift-fallout/623330/ https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/03/vlad... nm, Im sure the more up to date projections are accurate and the projections from 2022, 2023, 2024 and early 2025 were abberations.
    - toomuchtodo 1y ago
      Russian Banks Fear Debt Crisis Is Coming as War Strains Economy - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-26/russian-banks-fear-debt-crisis-is-coming-as-war-strains-economy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-26/russian-b... | https://archive.today/3DUEG https://archive.today/3DUEG - June 26th, 2025 > Tensions among Putin’s top officials over risks to the economy spilled into the open at the flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week. > “We are on the verge of slipping into a recession,” Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said during a panel discussion in which Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina argued the economy was experiencing a necessary cooling. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov acknowledged “we’re going through a cold spell now.” > Putin made his position clear in a speech the following day. “Some specialists, experts, point to the risks of stagnation and even recession,” he said. “This, of course, should not be allowed under any circumstances.”
  - bpodgursky 1y ago
    Russia is a petrostate. The only thing that would critically damage Russia's economy is persistently low oil prices. In the near term, the only way to get there is probably 100% uncapping US production, maybe holding our nose and getting Venezuela's production back up.

Animats 1y ago

“Some people die in road accidents, others from alcohol – when they die, it’s unclear how. But your son lived, do you understand? He fulfilled his purpose.” - Putin, to the mother of a dead soldier. The Economist reports that the war is causing a boom in some small towns in Russia. There's a big death benefit paid to the families.

Trasmatta 1y ago
> He fulfilled his purpose That "purpose" being dying for Putin's pointless and evil war. Fuck Putin.

arctics 1y ago

[flagged]

bmgoau 1y ago
You forgot the last bit: Russia takes over Ukraine, deposes it's government, kills more people, erases it's culture and identity, snuffs out one of the few nascent democracies. Sends a message to all over regional and mid powers: if you want to just take over another country, even a democracy right on Europe's doorstep, you can. China invades Taiwan.
- pydry 1y ago
  This message was sent long ago by America that if your country declares itself "exceptional" any and all war crimes are acceptable. All Putin had to say to get the global south to look the other way was "we're not different". Which was true.
doener 1y ago
>NATO countries are fighting Russia using Ukrainian soldiers What a grotesque reversal of the facts.
arctics 1y ago
ugly truth is so much better than a beautiful lie.

pydry 1y ago

>The estimate aligns with a recent study by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which puts Russian military deaths at up to 250,000 and total casualties, including the wounded, at over 950,000. Ukraine has suffered very high losses as well, with between 60,000 and 100,000 personnel killed and total casualties reaching approximately 400,000. I searched for the CSIS study to see what their methodology was and found a video https://www.csis.org/analysis/evening-one-million-russian-casualties-us-have-slower-growth-truckin-and-more https://www.csis.org/analysis/evening-one-million-russian-ca... ...which explained: * Nothing. Nada. Literally zero evidence of any kind combined with literally zero analysis. * An assertion that this number "proves" that it's not true that "Russia holds all the cards". They appear to want to rebut Trump's opinion. * The final comment was about the military assistance bill and how important it was that it be passed. There was also some random facts that look like they might support the original claim but which emphatically do not (e.g. amount of land taken). The average Russian would of course also be equally inclined to believe their military industrial complex's PR lobby group when it makes unsourced claims like this. That's coz the average Russian is not too smart.

csislktok 1y ago
I don't see a video on the site you linked, but I do see a subheader >In That Number ... 1 million With a link to https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukraine https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-battlefield-woes-ukrai... which has a PDF: https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2025-06/250603_Jones_Battlefield_Woes_0.pdf?VersionId=swtz75pqU3Del_5mBFQfV5dYKCS8J_gz https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2025-... Which has a pageful of sources for the numbers
- pydry 1y ago
  It has pagefuls of references to claims about lost tanks (also dubious), land taken (probably accurate), comparison of losses to historical wars etc. which are the random facts I was referring to. Nothing about how the American military industrial complex's lobby and this war's biggest profiteer by far pulled that impressive 1 million number from tho. Dont worry those weapons did tons of good though. Super successful. As your article points out - it's imperative you keep buying.

drweevil 1y ago

This is dubiously sourced and defies comparisons with other conflicts. These casualty figures are at the same level as total US casualties in World War 2. It beggars belief that a regional war can produce such casualties. By contrast total US casualties in Vietnam were about 211,000, and Korea, about 140,000. Given the sources for these Russian casualty figures there is a very high likelihood that these numbers are grossly misstated.

TiredOfLife 1y ago
https://200.zona.media/ https://200.zona.media/ Absolute floor of dead russians is 111 thousand Korean war had 2.5 million military and about the same of civilian casualities. And it was 20 million country fighting 9 million country. Population of russia is 140 million. And Ukraine 37 million.
- apothegm 1y ago
  Yup, and casualties includes injuries that take people out of action, not just deaths. A badly sprained ankle is a casualty. So total casualties will be significantly higher than that 110K.
Aloisius 1y ago
The US and Russia do not conduct wars the same way. I'm not sure comparing them is a valid sanity check.
aaron695 1y ago
[dead]

amai 1y ago

"One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic." -- Joseph Stalin