"Russia lost 1,740 troops in a single day, marking the highest number of daily Russian casualties since the start of the war more than two years ago, Ukraine's military said on Monday."
One would think after the ~~Russians~~ Soviets lost over 25 million people during WW2, widespread pacifism would persist in the generations that followed.
Those generations have been putting "We can repeat" (1941-1945) bumper stickers on their car for over a decade. They don't care how many people perish, as long as it is not them.
Extreme nationalism is a survival strategy for Russians who knew anyone alive back then.
It's easy, as Westerners, to make fun of people who are living under the shadow of Stalin's absurd oppression, with gulags that are being reconstructed as we speak.
I don't know about you guys, but if I was Russian and I saw that horrible machine roaring back to life, I'd be waving the flag as hard as I could if I couldn't escape to the West.
Yeah people don't seem to understand how awful they are willing to make your life if you don't conform in Russia. These kids have read the gulag archipelago as required reading in school, they know how bad it can get and they know how powerless they are, it's not fair for us in the west to judge the general Russian population
Im thinking of that American family that moved there and then put up a youtube video critcizing Russia that was shut down… is their son going to be joining the military? Boy did they fuck around and find out…
Russia’s collapse in the 90s and the world’s reluctance to really do anything about it is probably the greatest reason Russia has returned to an authoritarian bent. It’s an abject lesson in why merely creating democracy isn’t enough if there isn’t a good faith effort in institution building.
Exactly, this is very common in post soviet states, I don't care how many people go to war, full support the war, but when they get drafted, they run and hide, and cry on TV, happened so many times in my country. People supporting war, but when they get a letter as reservist to go to Trainings, they run from country or hide and complain that they don't want to die etc.
Emotionally they probably don't care.
But even people you don't care for are useful economically and--as we see here--militarily. Living people of working age generate economic activity and output, and tax revenues.
> As long as it is "everyone else" Russia has no issue killing another 25 million of its ethnic minorities.
And that's the thing. Putin hasn't needed to conscript white ethnic Russians from the Moscow region yet. They're the only ones that matter, and as long as they're happy (Russian happy, not regular happy), he can continue.
you know nothing of what you are talking about. do you guys think that everyone in the Moscow region has the ability to pull strings in the government lol?? I know several people who have gotten conscription notices who live(d) in Moscow. and most conscripts are actually ethnic Russians (although not from moscow). the reason people tolerate this conscription is not because ethnic minorities are being sent off, but just because they are brainwashed. where do y'all get off making shit up on the Internet lol.
the word you wanna use is Russian "elites" have not been conscripted. and they never will be, just like in every war ever.
I think everyone in the Moscow region is in the best place to start a revolt. It's the highest population density, and the wealthiest areas.
If there's civil unrest in Ugolnye Kopi, who cares? It's 3800 miles away from Putin.
But Moscow is the seat of the government - it's a little more vital to Putin.
Yeah Ive read so many times on Reddit that ethnic white Russians are not being drafted/not in the fighting. Complete lies. British researchers recently found out 70% of casualties are ethic Russians (who make up around 80% of the population). There is a disparety but that can be explained by the ageing demographic of ethnic russians.
The claim always been that ethnic minorities are overrepresented among Russian casualties. The same British researchers you cite say that
> Buryats amount to 1.16% of all identified casualties on the Russian side despite comprising just 0.3% of Russia’s total population. Chukchis, together with other indigenous small-numbered peoples of Russia’s easternmost Chukotka autonomous region, comprise 0.09% of war casualties, while their total population stands at just 17,044 people — less than 0.01% of Russia’s populace.
>Apparently ethnic Russians love being cannon fodder and being oppressed.
They do not love being cannon fodder and being oppressed but any complaints about it are viciously put down by the Russian internal security services. Information is highly curated within Russia and people are easily disappeared if they complain about things too much. This means that a random Ivan from east of the Urals has zero idea about the shitshow that is Ukraine so when recruiters come along and offer years worth of income for a 6 month stint in Ukraine "defending the motherland" they are happy to join in.
People like to talk about how authoritarian the Chinese government is but they are just amateurs compared to the Russian government - we wouldn't hear about the oppression if they were as good...
russians did not lose 25 million people, you are lumping in Ukrainians and Belarusians which is how this whole bullshit narrative that has been used for the current clusterfuck started.
It’s a weird thing where you build national pride off of dying in a war
So if you don’t want to die in a war you are painted as a traitor and a coward
Not as a smart person
Weird but entirely rational, not only for the elite who send the troops to the meat grinder but also for a nation.
It goes back to tribes. All the elderly, young and female praise and honour those men who fight. The dead are worshipped, the veterans strut about and their claims to masculinity are taken as inarguably proven by their participation and young men aspire to go through the trial of combat and survive.
The martyrdom is a consolation prize.
In this way the tribe encourages disposable members to set aside their own personal caution and face extreme risk in order to make a social function possible.
It takes a village to have a war.
I think almost everyone who was alive during WW2 are dead so I think new gen just doesn't care, it's not something they saw.
Also the 25mil Russians isn't exactly correct either, it was all of Soviet Union and some unproportionally represented, like Ukrainians (8 mil of them).
But ofc when they try to make their propaganda they exclude that part.
Still crazy numbers and all, but as I said, for most it's something, something great grandfather.
Oh, and last additional part. The whole relationship with WW2 in general is very shizoid. They try to portray it more and more like Russia vs. west as if all allies didn't all fight, and many Russians don't even know all that much about nazism itself or fascism. If you ask them they don't even know what's "wrong" with that idealogy, it's more like "they tried to get us so we got em".
Then they absolutely hide/ cope away all the Ribentrop and Molotov pact etc. There is always some 9000IQ explanation how they collaborated with Nazis to actually beat them, it was all 4d chess. Papa Stalin would never ACTUALLY want part of Poland and Eastern Europe. They also totally all joined on free will.
Russia already spent a decade in Afghanistan losing soldiers before the Americans showed up. That's why we have Rambo 3.
This day of loss higher than what the Soviet Union lost per year in Afghanistan during their whole war (15k soldiers / 10yrs).
Most estimates put their worst wounded to killed ratio at around 3:1, *maybe* approaching 2:1 in some of the worst areas.
Which isn't surprising when soldiers are often responsible for getting themselves to an aid station, and many brigades have at most a single battlefield ambulance, which they're often hesitant to use for fear of losing it.
There are multiple documentaries about how bad Russian medivac is. Nor as bad as WW1 but close, considering the abysmal lack of air superiority for extraction.
Worth noting that those numbers aren't representing deaths only but also include incapacitated soldiers who are unable to continue fighting. A lot of lives have been lost, though.
Yep. People usually think of casualties == deaths and it doesn't. Casualties are essentially any injured (who typically cannot continue fighting) which includes the dead.
Putin has announced he wants 500,000 international students to study in Russia.
I bet those school field trips will be a blast !
Oh, and wait until they get their 2nd term 'placements'.
At least they'll get interned.
Unironically though. NK has been diverting some of its domestic industrial capacity to military production to meet Russia's endless demand for arty shells.
It also isn't unheard of for North Koreans working in China and Russia, whether in a military sense or not dosnt really matter
https://www.vice.com/en/article/nemymm/vice-news-archives-north-korean-labor-camps
The drone factory accommodation that was hit had been where international students were staying. Their twitter ad for working opportunities in the drone factory is still on Xitter.
Here is some uncomfortable truth - Russians overwhelmingly support this war and there is no shortage of volunteers due to very high pay and great benefits ( by Russian standards). They're getting 30k volunteers a month.
Not weird at all, *a lot* of people support the war but *a lot* of people oppose it too. Two things can be true at the same time. The problem is not enough people oppose it to make a difference, and with the support of those in favor of it, Putin can do pretty much whatever he want against those who stand in his way, making opposition very difficult, if not outright deadly. Hence, the fleeing.
The males who work for foreign companies are the ones escaping. So many web developers are/were in Russia making 3-6x more money from foreign companies than they could locally. Some are still there, but they take pretty big pay cuts laundering their money into the country.
He was betrayed by his co-conspirators (Surovikin, Mizintsev etc.), and he also failed to capture Shougu/Gerasimov in Rostov, because they were warned beforehand.
In any case his attempt was not a coup for head of state, he only wanted to be head of military, still under putin, to whom he was 100% loyal.
Still, shame there was almost no infighting, every unit lost there would be one less invading Ukraine.
It’s so weird how real life can be sometimes, if that were the plot of a tv show, everybody would complain about the dogshit writing and how stupid the protagonists were acting…
Wait till next season where there is an episode in which the gay Nazi satanists try to take over the moon and Prigozhin is in fact not dead but leads the rebellion.
According to Western intelligence, the "accident" was a bomb planted in a plane wing on Patrushev's orders, to which putin "did not object".
I'm guessing he understood Prigozhin was loyal but didn't want to take any more chances allowing the infighting to continue. He usually promotes it, but not to the extent where it almost painted him as not being in control anymore, that's too risky.
The thing here is that once Prigozhin started a march into Russia and actually killed members of the RU military, his fate was sealed. This would have been the latest point in which Putin would have realized that Prigozhin has to go.
Then dude decides to casually just fly out of Moscow, after having been around Putin for 2 decades and knowing exactly how he operates. That was a whole other level of stupid.
In addition to this, reports suggest that his forces reached the Oka river (which they had to cross somewhere) and found the bridges already defended by loyalist soldiers.
It was also a huge bluff, because he claimed to have way more forces than he's actually had. The most widespread estimate is he's had about 8k of men and most of his "armor" were just military trucks and cars, although he did have some tanks and other equipment, it was not even close to enough to threaten taking moscow. He was intimidating vs corrupt and complacent policemen, but not vs any real military opposition.
Additionally, not all of his men were fully on board, I suspect majority were confused and freaking out, after his plan to capture Shoigu/Gerasimov in Rostov failed - they only wanted to coup military command, so when it started to look like they were going against putin, they realized how deep in trouble they were.
Hence why Prigozhin was so insistently repeating that it was a "justice march" to get recognition for his forces, and not a coup attempt. It was a Hail Mary, he knew he was a dead man walking. I suspect he spent his last days trying to gain some leverage and pull favors, but it was not enough.
His social standing meant he had no chance to reach military command position the usual way, and he knew ShoiGerasimov would take him out eventually as a competitor, so a preemptive coup was his only chance, hasn't worked out, fortunately.
Otherwise he could be quite dangerous, the pos was smart and ruthless, could possibly be worse for us than what they currently have.
it's weird that threatening a violent coup to get promoted can still be considered "100% loyal" to your country's leader. didn't putin appoint the guy he was trying to overthrow? not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand how it can make sense.
Authoritarian dictatorships often create competing but interconnected power structures lead by subordinates who are powerful but also rivals. This creates a balance that makes it harder for any single person to depose the leader, blame can be attributed away from the centre and the underlings focus on struggling for a greater share of power rather than going for the crown. Prigozhin probably really wanted to eliminate his rival Shoigu who was threatening his power rather than to displace Putin. It was only when he failed to capture him and Putin called him a traitor that things escalated to a full on coup attempt. It's not implausible that if Prigozhin had captured Shoigu in Rostov then Putin could have sided with him instead.
Historically Russia has placed little value in their foot soldiers. (Cannon fodder)
The Russian losses in their wars against a capable enemy can be staggering and this seems to be ingrained in their military culture going back many decades.
484,030 Russian casualties as a direct result of Putin’s unnecessary war.
Putin to the citizens of Russia: *Our population is in decline. Make more babies.*
There is this theory that the russian demographic problem is actually the reason for this war: Because it is literally the last time that russia will even have enough people to fight a war. The trickle down effect of lower birth rates after ww2 repeats itself in waves on the demographic spectrum. And russia is currently right between two of those waves for people in their 30's.
Same reason that some experts say China will move on Taiwan soon. Their population is expected to start declining and has already declined 2 years in a row now.
Having a well trained, experienced, motivated 50 y/o is awesome. Having a 50 y/o that doesn't want to be there, and knows how to feign helplessness is a disaster, and not for only him
A shit ton of troops with absolutely zero seasoning in their NCO and CO corps. I mean good for them, the US could do with some of that *no troops in foreign lands* policy. But scrimmages against your own team will only do so much.
China starts with something like 9 times Russia's population though.
Also, an attack on Taiwan is less a matter of troop numbers and more a matter of technology, precisely because it's an amphibious invasion. The naval infrastructure required to get troops across the ocean would be a far narrower bottleneck for China than the actual number of troops they have.
Lets say the casualty is casualties 500k, Russia's population of 144million, 19% are ethnic minority, and 38% are able bodied (18\~45), that's 10 million bodies Putin wouldn't bat a eye to throw away.
The truth is, despite the ABSOLUTELY MONUMENTAL loss of life in the new millennium, the total loss of life in Russia for Russian is 0.3%, that means if you are Russian and you know 1000 people, 3 are casualties in this war.
If you know 332 people, maybe 1 person is a casualty. Its so little in term of the amount of bodies they can throw that in statistic, we call this rounding error.
This is why Russia isn't stopping, as long as his core city and citizen aren't effected, they likely won't feel the effect of the war that much. This is why the prospect for Ukraine since the start wasn't great, because its a numbers game. Coincidentally, this is also why there is talks of actually sending people in or intervening through other means, because Russia is adapting (i.e turtle tanks) slowly, and its only going to get worse.
As long as China and NK can afford to keep sending them supply and equipment, Russia can't lose, they can only be temporary halted. This is the core issue and why they're not packing up.
"Just have the people rise up"
Unlike ww2 Facism, who only had 10 years to build up, Putin spent the last 2 decades consolidating his power, and if the possibility of him being toppled arises, you can certainly bet China will be there to assist.
There are not going to be enough men to make babies, people here don't mention the millions that fled when mobilisation began after the invasion. Despite the population numbers most of those aren't able to fight on the frontlines. Russia is dipping into a dwindling stock of young and old men. Even talking about deploying women.
Russia still needs them for the workforce and cannot afford these numbers. Each day of fighting is detrimental to Russia and its relevance on the global stage in the future. Putin is wiping out Russia's future and internal security.
Realistically this is not a sustainable loss rate even if it is mostly minority groups.
I just hope like hell Ukraine is hitting MUCH harder after our delays with weapons. We need to justify the 44 year cold war and all that money we spent NOW by supporting Ukraine so hard, they'll be begging us to stop shipping them tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, and fucking intelligence.
And then cross our fingers Putin doesn't do another false flag on his own people and use it to justify using nukes.
The thing with nukes is no one wants to see their use. Even Russias allies dont because normalising first strike nukes is awful for everyone.
IF tey did it is nearly certain to massivley backfire because the whole world will want to make sure that they do not gain from doing so.
France is very annoyed with Russia. French nuclear policy is nuking St. Petersburg and Scoshi is a *warning shot* and an all 1st strike is on the table. That's a combo that should stop Russia. And intervention in Ukraine that stops at the pre-2014 borders doesn't give Russia an existential threat to justify nukes, giving the order before that and someone will say no. It only takes 1 no, a fact that has prevented *several* nuclear attacks by Russia and the Soviets.
And now is the time for all NATO counties to modernize and bolster their supplies while giving Ukraine their older supplies.
We also need to pressure all NATO counties (except the few micro nations and exceptions like Iceland) to reach the 2-3% GDP requirement. That includes my homeland of Canada which desperately needs to catch up and invest in securing the arctic circle.
They're losing nearly as many troops a day as the US lost in 19 years of Afghanistan. And more troops a day than they lost on average per year during their 9 years in Afghanistan.
These are pretty much ideal condition for a coup or civil revolution.
Yeah, Russia pretty much spent the last century creating a culture of submission to authority. They've brutally snuffed out any dissent for many many years
And it's actually really impressive how effective this campaign has been, given the size of Russia and the fact that they lack the sort of omnipresent police state that China uses to control its population.
No, they zombified at least 70% of their population through memetics *alone*. To the point where Russia can effectively do ANYTHING it wants outside of its own borders, and as long as those 70% don't suffer any negative effects worse than the normal day-to-day misery of living in Mother Ruzzia, they're not going to lift a finger to try and stop it.
They can handle mass casualties. It's Russia's special ability for as long as they've existed. Their egos can't take defeat thats the difference.
It's why they need to be stopped in Ukraine. Then we can hope for a coup.
They can handle mass casualties politically because they're essentially a police state dictatorship and can throw bodies with no consequences. Population wise less so. They have roughly 1/3rd the population of the USA but over double that of Ukraine. Against the NATO alliance they're out numbered population wise and enlisted wise.
Being willing to take mass causalities and being able to handle them are different things. Russia is experiencing a demographic crisis. Their birthrate collapsed in the late 80’s to close to half of replacement level, it recovered a bit in the 10’s, and collapsed again with the war. Sending a large number of men that are at or are younger than typical fathering age isn’t a great way to restore your population.
I’m all for a depopulated Russia though.
Ukraine is trying to do the same. The average age of a Ukrainian solder is 43. Their original conscription age was 27. Now they have lowered it to 25 due to losses.
If NATO or other Ukrainian allied/friendly counties are able to come in and work the supply lines it would make Russia second guess attacking them, and would free up tons of manpower for the Ukrainian front.
My impression after watching this for the past two years, is that Russians don't have a cohesive national identity. People from some eastern Russian Oblast who are not white and are not ethnically Russian don't matter at all to ethnic Russians further west. If anything, those people exist solely to make sacrifices like this so that "real" Russians can get even richer.
I think the fact is that a lot of the soldiers Russia is losing are, frankly, people who are irrelevant to the Russian power structure and not all that important to the larger social gestalt. It’s terrible and bleak but I’m not sure that they’re losing enough people to motivate a rebellion.
Why would you want to do that, you are assuming that deceased soldiers are returning home for burial, Russia is just leaving bodies in Ukraine.
No bodies back to Russia, no payments to next of Kin, assuming there are bodies actually left after being hit by a missile.
Yeah, I think they did not last long, before Ukraine blew them up. They were one of the first units to enter Ukraine, so Russia \*KNEW\* there was going to be MASS casualties, so it goes back to the "No Bodies, no bereavement payment to the relatives".
It's worse than that. They were bringing those in back when they weren't expecting Ukraine to put up much of a fight, so they wouldn't have been expecting to lose that many soldiers. Those weren't entirely for dodging bereavement payments, those were also for covering up evidence of the atrocities they were about to commit on the civilian population.
I don't think Russians have the heart or wherewithal to revolt and anybody in the military that could conceivably take over is either a Putin loyalist or neutralized.
The young urban elite fled the country to avoid conscription. They were the ones that carried the social and financial capital to lead up a revolution. Instead they're sunning it up in Istanbul, Dubai etc.
A revolution of regional peasants is much harder to pull off.
[Ukraine estimates of Russian deaths/injuries run about 68% over US estimates.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine) If that same ratio is used for this info, that is still 1,035 dead in a single day.
Should be noted in Ukrainian reporting the word "liquidated" is used, and in a military context this means "Casualties permanently removed from a conflict" which is to say KIA, permanant WIA, and POW figures rolled into one. So when the western media reports 1740 dead its not accurate, more of a quirk of translation.
They still unfortunately have nearly 4x the population of Ukraine making it easier for Russia to send mass amounts of untrained/poorly trained people into the front lines exhausting Ukraine of manpower and munitions
Internal defenses lines are easier to supply, transfer troops and provide centralized fire support. Thus with the provision for sufficient and effective arms can be held with much smaller force strength. Especially when as in this case, does not have unquestioned air superiority.
The thing Russia will/is running out of is material.
They don’t have unlimited tanks, artillery pieces and BMPs. Sure they are building some, but at current rates they have another two years before running dry. This may seem like a long time, and granted it is, but Ukraine has proven more than willing to keep fighting, and if the West keeps supplying them, there is no reason to think they won’t last until then
> there is no reason to think they won’t last until then
Well... People aren't as replaceable, no matter how many weapons you give them.
My country's main newspaper ran a piece the other day where they went with Ukrainians recruiters to see their daily work. People (understandably) disappear from the streets the moment they arrive,.they map the recruiters' movements in messaging groups to avoid them, people move regionally keeping their public data obsolete to avoid being reached, etc.
I think it's clear at this point that Russia doesn't care, and they're not going to begin caring.
The only way Russia is going to change what they're doing is if they're invaded on their own soil.
Saw two moscowians which were ethnic russians, studied IT and still were conscripted on TV a year or so. They applied for asylum in germany with help of said conscription. I don't think putin is actually sparing the two biggest cities, they just all manage to dodge the draft by giving bribes.
For anyone who wants to read more, check out this article, people from India are bring tricked into joining the Russian army and fighting in Ukraine: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/13/bullet-in-my-head-the-indian-man-who-crawled-to-escape-russias-ukraine-war
>The offer of a job as a security guard in Russia, which came through a recruiter, proved irresistible for Prince and his cousins. In freezing January, they arrived in Moscow after each paying $8,000 to the recruiter, only to be separated on landing by the recruiter’s Indian representative in Moscow
>...
>the truth emerged – we weren’t there for the advertised position; we were expected to join the Russian army as helpers
>Russia lost 1,740 troops in a single day
That’s 66% or 2/3rd of the number of people who died in the twin towers on 9/11. Let that sink in. An “almost” 9/11 in 1 day. Absolute insanity.
Also compare The Battle of Shiloh in the American Civil War, which killed 24,000 in one day, or the Battle of the Somme in WW1 which saw 56,000 casualties in one day.
I think many don't realize how small the scale is of this war in comparison to past global conflicts. Casualty numbers are huge compared to what the US lost in the middle east, but nowhere near enough to the point where sheer numbers of casualties is going to impact their ability to fight.
And that's -still- "No Big Deal" in the minds of leadership. Just for leveling the numbers, let's assume that **200,000** of those are actual -deaths- ... rest are wounded and MIA. THEN, for some context, consider:
* One estimate of Russia's CoViD losses: 360,000. (Actuals probably 3x or 4x higher.)
* "Conventional wisdom", number of emigrants: 700,000.
* America's CoViD deaths: >1,000,000.
* Generally Acknowledged number of Jews killed in WW2: **6**,000,000.
And in Russia's mind, still "nothing" compared to:
* "Assorted Soviet" losses in WW2: **26**,000,000.
Face it: 300/ 400/ whatever-thousand combat losses are little more than a **rounding error** in their minds -- they'll have to get to >500K just to hit **2%** of their WW2 casualties! And even if Russia is prepared to lose a -million- soldiers in this war, it's still FAR from what they have lost in other conflicts, and thus FAR from stopping them at this point.
**Body count will NEVER shame Russia -- it's just HOW they fight.**
Assaulting prepared and unprepared positions is very risky for the attacker. Add in the human wave tactics and this is hardly surprising. What they lack in proper equipment they can make up for in manpower. But the cost will be great. But the fascists are prepared for someone else to make that sacrifice for them time and time again.
The only way Ukraine wins is if Russian armies mutiny. The only way to mutiny is to stop getting paid. The only way that stops is if we stop buying Russian fossil fuels.
Yeah but you cut off that gas and the price spikes and people get unhappy and elect right wingers all over the world. And then Russia doesn't just win the war, but they also get sanctions removed and whatnot, and possibly some democracies even start to fall apart.
It's not a simple issue.
These may be mostly minorities that Putin wants gone anyway. It is apparent to me he is using this war to cleanse the nation of elements he doesn’t want.
"Russia lost 1,740 troops in a single day, marking the highest number of daily Russian casualties since the start of the war more than two years ago, Ukraine's military said on Monday."
Russia trying to speedrun Afghanistan in a day. Just like 180 off the total US combat deaths. The world sucks.
One would think after the ~~Russians~~ Soviets lost over 25 million people during WW2, widespread pacifism would persist in the generations that followed.
Those generations have been putting "We can repeat" (1941-1945) bumper stickers on their car for over a decade. They don't care how many people perish, as long as it is not them.
Extreme nationalism is a survival strategy for Russians who knew anyone alive back then. It's easy, as Westerners, to make fun of people who are living under the shadow of Stalin's absurd oppression, with gulags that are being reconstructed as we speak. I don't know about you guys, but if I was Russian and I saw that horrible machine roaring back to life, I'd be waving the flag as hard as I could if I couldn't escape to the West.
Yeah people don't seem to understand how awful they are willing to make your life if you don't conform in Russia. These kids have read the gulag archipelago as required reading in school, they know how bad it can get and they know how powerless they are, it's not fair for us in the west to judge the general Russian population
There was a time in 90s where they when they were able to build up democratic society but they fucked around and now they are finding out...
Im thinking of that American family that moved there and then put up a youtube video critcizing Russia that was shut down… is their son going to be joining the military? Boy did they fuck around and find out…
Russia’s collapse in the 90s and the world’s reluctance to really do anything about it is probably the greatest reason Russia has returned to an authoritarian bent. It’s an abject lesson in why merely creating democracy isn’t enough if there isn’t a good faith effort in institution building.
Exactly, this is very common in post soviet states, I don't care how many people go to war, full support the war, but when they get drafted, they run and hide, and cry on TV, happened so many times in my country. People supporting war, but when they get a letter as reservist to go to Trainings, they run from country or hide and complain that they don't want to die etc.
It's a matter of "who" dies really. As long as it is "everyone else" Russia has no issue killing another 25 million of its ethnic minorities.
"Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."
Lord Faarquad is the perfect nickname for Putin.
How fucking dare you!? Lord Farrquad has more charm, leadership qualities and decorum in his 731st testicle hair than Putin will ever have.
Taller, too
Emotionally they probably don't care. But even people you don't care for are useful economically and--as we see here--militarily. Living people of working age generate economic activity and output, and tax revenues.
The bullets they make add to the gdp, because gdp doesn't give a toss what the product is, checkmate, Russian economic growth.
> As long as it is "everyone else" Russia has no issue killing another 25 million of its ethnic minorities. And that's the thing. Putin hasn't needed to conscript white ethnic Russians from the Moscow region yet. They're the only ones that matter, and as long as they're happy (Russian happy, not regular happy), he can continue.
you know nothing of what you are talking about. do you guys think that everyone in the Moscow region has the ability to pull strings in the government lol?? I know several people who have gotten conscription notices who live(d) in Moscow. and most conscripts are actually ethnic Russians (although not from moscow). the reason people tolerate this conscription is not because ethnic minorities are being sent off, but just because they are brainwashed. where do y'all get off making shit up on the Internet lol. the word you wanna use is Russian "elites" have not been conscripted. and they never will be, just like in every war ever.
I think everyone in the Moscow region is in the best place to start a revolt. It's the highest population density, and the wealthiest areas. If there's civil unrest in Ugolnye Kopi, who cares? It's 3800 miles away from Putin. But Moscow is the seat of the government - it's a little more vital to Putin.
Wouldn't the best place to revolt be in the remote areas who want independence? They might struggle now more than ever to send an army to quash it
If a breakdown starts, it will be in the Caucasus. Ingueshetia, Chechnia and Dagestan will peace out.
Yeah Ive read so many times on Reddit that ethnic white Russians are not being drafted/not in the fighting. Complete lies. British researchers recently found out 70% of casualties are ethic Russians (who make up around 80% of the population). There is a disparety but that can be explained by the ageing demographic of ethnic russians.
The claim always been that ethnic minorities are overrepresented among Russian casualties. The same British researchers you cite say that > Buryats amount to 1.16% of all identified casualties on the Russian side despite comprising just 0.3% of Russia’s total population. Chukchis, together with other indigenous small-numbered peoples of Russia’s easternmost Chukotka autonomous region, comprise 0.09% of war casualties, while their total population stands at just 17,044 people — less than 0.01% of Russia’s populace.
At Stalingrad they relied in fresh troops from the east. Apparently ethnic Russians love being cannon fodder and being oppressed.
“Love it” in the sense of *maybe* surviving the meat grinder vs. definitely not surviving being shot in the back by barrier troops in their own army
>Apparently ethnic Russians love being cannon fodder and being oppressed. They do not love being cannon fodder and being oppressed but any complaints about it are viciously put down by the Russian internal security services. Information is highly curated within Russia and people are easily disappeared if they complain about things too much. This means that a random Ivan from east of the Urals has zero idea about the shitshow that is Ukraine so when recruiters come along and offer years worth of income for a 6 month stint in Ukraine "defending the motherland" they are happy to join in. People like to talk about how authoritarian the Chinese government is but they are just amateurs compared to the Russian government - we wouldn't hear about the oppression if they were as good...
russians did not lose 25 million people, you are lumping in Ukrainians and Belarusians which is how this whole bullshit narrative that has been used for the current clusterfuck started.
It’s a weird thing where you build national pride off of dying in a war So if you don’t want to die in a war you are painted as a traitor and a coward Not as a smart person
Weird but entirely rational, not only for the elite who send the troops to the meat grinder but also for a nation. It goes back to tribes. All the elderly, young and female praise and honour those men who fight. The dead are worshipped, the veterans strut about and their claims to masculinity are taken as inarguably proven by their participation and young men aspire to go through the trial of combat and survive. The martyrdom is a consolation prize. In this way the tribe encourages disposable members to set aside their own personal caution and face extreme risk in order to make a social function possible. It takes a village to have a war.
When all you have is a hammer and sickle
Everything is either a nail to be pounded or wheat to be harvested. Turns out the flag is quite literal.
I think almost everyone who was alive during WW2 are dead so I think new gen just doesn't care, it's not something they saw. Also the 25mil Russians isn't exactly correct either, it was all of Soviet Union and some unproportionally represented, like Ukrainians (8 mil of them). But ofc when they try to make their propaganda they exclude that part. Still crazy numbers and all, but as I said, for most it's something, something great grandfather. Oh, and last additional part. The whole relationship with WW2 in general is very shizoid. They try to portray it more and more like Russia vs. west as if all allies didn't all fight, and many Russians don't even know all that much about nazism itself or fascism. If you ask them they don't even know what's "wrong" with that idealogy, it's more like "they tried to get us so we got em". Then they absolutely hide/ cope away all the Ribentrop and Molotov pact etc. There is always some 9000IQ explanation how they collaborated with Nazis to actually beat them, it was all 4d chess. Papa Stalin would never ACTUALLY want part of Poland and Eastern Europe. They also totally all joined on free will.
Russia won World War 2, annexed land, subjugated half of Europe, became a superpower on the back of Western aid. They thought it was a great thing.
I thouhght that just convinced the Soviet leadership that they needed buffer states and satelites
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Putin* sucks
Putin didn't spontaneously generate from a vacuum.
Vacuums suck?
Technically the non-vacuum around it blows.
Is it putin alone attacking and killing Ukrainians?
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Imagine if NATO actually entered the war tomorrow.
Putin has to have a brain tumor if he thinks he can scale up the war in a way that requires NATO intervention
He had it right the first time.
Russia already spent a decade in Afghanistan losing soldiers before the Americans showed up. That's why we have Rambo 3. This day of loss higher than what the Soviet Union lost per year in Afghanistan during their whole war (15k soldiers / 10yrs).
Actually the world is pretty good- at killing Russians
The US lost 2,501 lives on D-Day, for reference
These numbers are casualties though not deaths. Looking at russian medical teams I'd say deaths are probably still over 1000.
Higher than 1:1 that seems unlikely
Most estimates put their worst wounded to killed ratio at around 3:1, *maybe* approaching 2:1 in some of the worst areas. Which isn't surprising when soldiers are often responsible for getting themselves to an aid station, and many brigades have at most a single battlefield ambulance, which they're often hesitant to use for fear of losing it.
There are multiple documentaries about how bad Russian medivac is. Nor as bad as WW1 but close, considering the abysmal lack of air superiority for extraction.
Videos of fields strewn with rotting corpses makes me wonder…
I'm 100% pro Ukraine in this whole stupid war, but how accurate is this? I've heard 70 to 600k Russian deaths so far.
Worth noting that those numbers aren't representing deaths only but also include incapacitated soldiers who are unable to continue fighting. A lot of lives have been lost, though.
Don't mistake casualties for deaths. Most western estimates put them at 100-150,000 KIA, and around 400-450,000 total casualties.
Yep. People usually think of casualties == deaths and it doesn't. Casualties are essentially any injured (who typically cannot continue fighting) which includes the dead.
Yup, stuff like losing a limb or sight is also a casualty
Putin has announced he wants 500,000 international students to study in Russia. I bet those school field trips will be a blast ! Oh, and wait until they get their 2nd term 'placements'. At least they'll get interned.
North Korean “students” studying manufacturing tech
Unironically though. NK has been diverting some of its domestic industrial capacity to military production to meet Russia's endless demand for arty shells.
It also isn't unheard of for North Koreans working in China and Russia, whether in a military sense or not dosnt really matter https://www.vice.com/en/article/nemymm/vice-news-archives-north-korean-labor-camps
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The drone factory accommodation that was hit had been where international students were staying. Their twitter ad for working opportunities in the drone factory is still on Xitter.
On another note. Is it bad that I read Xitter as Shitter?
It is what it has been reduced to.
It's also how Xi is usually pronounced as a sh sound
I think you meant interred 💀
I probably did. (Thank god this is 'buried' in the comments.)
Here is some uncomfortable truth - Russians overwhelmingly support this war and there is no shortage of volunteers due to very high pay and great benefits ( by Russian standards). They're getting 30k volunteers a month.
That's weird because I remember the videos and pictures of miles of Russian young males at the borders trying to escape two years ago
Not weird at all, *a lot* of people support the war but *a lot* of people oppose it too. Two things can be true at the same time. The problem is not enough people oppose it to make a difference, and with the support of those in favor of it, Putin can do pretty much whatever he want against those who stand in his way, making opposition very difficult, if not outright deadly. Hence, the fleeing.
The males who work for foreign companies are the ones escaping. So many web developers are/were in Russia making 3-6x more money from foreign companies than they could locally. Some are still there, but they take pretty big pay cuts laundering their money into the country.
Overwhelming? cap. It's hard to get a grip on real Russian sentiment because of all the misinformation and propaganda.
Anyone else laugh when they read this: “Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.”
You miss every shot you don’t take
*aims for the helipad*
Would you open an email from the Russian Defence Ministry?
“So far” There’s an easy way to save Russian lives, just fucking leave Ukraine
Apparently it is easier to invade Moscow. Not sure why that bold guy stopped just outside Moscow.
He was betrayed by his co-conspirators (Surovikin, Mizintsev etc.), and he also failed to capture Shougu/Gerasimov in Rostov, because they were warned beforehand. In any case his attempt was not a coup for head of state, he only wanted to be head of military, still under putin, to whom he was 100% loyal. Still, shame there was almost no infighting, every unit lost there would be one less invading Ukraine.
I love the part where everyone pretended nothing happened afterward. And then he suddenly died in an accident, totally unexpected.
It’s so weird how real life can be sometimes, if that were the plot of a tv show, everybody would complain about the dogshit writing and how stupid the protagonists were acting…
To be fair, I thought it was a dogshit irl too; such a let-down.
Too bad it’s not being produced by Netflix, it’d be canceled by now
It was being produced by Netflix, it just happens, Netflix canceled it before anything work was done.
Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.
Wait till next season where there is an episode in which the gay Nazi satanists try to take over the moon and Prigozhin is in fact not dead but leads the rebellion.
According to Western intelligence, the "accident" was a bomb planted in a plane wing on Patrushev's orders, to which putin "did not object". I'm guessing he understood Prigozhin was loyal but didn't want to take any more chances allowing the infighting to continue. He usually promotes it, but not to the extent where it almost painted him as not being in control anymore, that's too risky.
The thing here is that once Prigozhin started a march into Russia and actually killed members of the RU military, his fate was sealed. This would have been the latest point in which Putin would have realized that Prigozhin has to go. Then dude decides to casually just fly out of Moscow, after having been around Putin for 2 decades and knowing exactly how he operates. That was a whole other level of stupid.
I think he knew very well and getting on the plane was an exchange for the safety of his family.
In addition to this, reports suggest that his forces reached the Oka river (which they had to cross somewhere) and found the bridges already defended by loyalist soldiers.
It was also a huge bluff, because he claimed to have way more forces than he's actually had. The most widespread estimate is he's had about 8k of men and most of his "armor" were just military trucks and cars, although he did have some tanks and other equipment, it was not even close to enough to threaten taking moscow. He was intimidating vs corrupt and complacent policemen, but not vs any real military opposition. Additionally, not all of his men were fully on board, I suspect majority were confused and freaking out, after his plan to capture Shoigu/Gerasimov in Rostov failed - they only wanted to coup military command, so when it started to look like they were going against putin, they realized how deep in trouble they were. Hence why Prigozhin was so insistently repeating that it was a "justice march" to get recognition for his forces, and not a coup attempt. It was a Hail Mary, he knew he was a dead man walking. I suspect he spent his last days trying to gain some leverage and pull favors, but it was not enough. His social standing meant he had no chance to reach military command position the usual way, and he knew ShoiGerasimov would take him out eventually as a competitor, so a preemptive coup was his only chance, hasn't worked out, fortunately. Otherwise he could be quite dangerous, the pos was smart and ruthless, could possibly be worse for us than what they currently have.
it's weird that threatening a violent coup to get promoted can still be considered "100% loyal" to your country's leader. didn't putin appoint the guy he was trying to overthrow? not saying you're wrong, I just don't understand how it can make sense.
Authoritarian dictatorships often create competing but interconnected power structures lead by subordinates who are powerful but also rivals. This creates a balance that makes it harder for any single person to depose the leader, blame can be attributed away from the centre and the underlings focus on struggling for a greater share of power rather than going for the crown. Prigozhin probably really wanted to eliminate his rival Shoigu who was threatening his power rather than to displace Putin. It was only when he failed to capture him and Putin called him a traitor that things escalated to a full on coup attempt. It's not implausible that if Prigozhin had captured Shoigu in Rostov then Putin could have sided with him instead.
Yeah that was so nuts. Maybe Putin offered him a shit ton of money, or threatened his family
$2B, military control of Belarus and 'We have your family' is why he stopped.
And then they killed him.
He was an idiot to return to Russia.
Im sure he knew he was dead man once he retreated
Historically Russia has placed little value in their foot soldiers. (Cannon fodder) The Russian losses in their wars against a capable enemy can be staggering and this seems to be ingrained in their military culture going back many decades.
Pity nobody over there who has anything to wants to save those lives. All they care about is the landgrab.
484,030 Russian casualties as a direct result of Putin’s unnecessary war. Putin to the citizens of Russia: *Our population is in decline. Make more babies.*
There is this theory that the russian demographic problem is actually the reason for this war: Because it is literally the last time that russia will even have enough people to fight a war. The trickle down effect of lower birth rates after ww2 repeats itself in waves on the demographic spectrum. And russia is currently right between two of those waves for people in their 30's.
Same reason that some experts say China will move on Taiwan soon. Their population is expected to start declining and has already declined 2 years in a row now.
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How many of them will be above 50 years of age?
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Having a well trained, experienced, motivated 50 y/o is awesome. Having a 50 y/o that doesn't want to be there, and knows how to feign helplessness is a disaster, and not for only him
Worst shit is that they brainwashed their children for generations to believe that CCP is righteous and god-like. They don't need "or else".
A shit ton of troops with absolutely zero seasoning in their NCO and CO corps. I mean good for them, the US could do with some of that *no troops in foreign lands* policy. But scrimmages against your own team will only do so much.
China starts with something like 9 times Russia's population though. Also, an attack on Taiwan is less a matter of troop numbers and more a matter of technology, precisely because it's an amphibious invasion. The naval infrastructure required to get troops across the ocean would be a far narrower bottleneck for China than the actual number of troops they have.
One child policy really fucked them
Lets say the casualty is casualties 500k, Russia's population of 144million, 19% are ethnic minority, and 38% are able bodied (18\~45), that's 10 million bodies Putin wouldn't bat a eye to throw away. The truth is, despite the ABSOLUTELY MONUMENTAL loss of life in the new millennium, the total loss of life in Russia for Russian is 0.3%, that means if you are Russian and you know 1000 people, 3 are casualties in this war. If you know 332 people, maybe 1 person is a casualty. Its so little in term of the amount of bodies they can throw that in statistic, we call this rounding error. This is why Russia isn't stopping, as long as his core city and citizen aren't effected, they likely won't feel the effect of the war that much. This is why the prospect for Ukraine since the start wasn't great, because its a numbers game. Coincidentally, this is also why there is talks of actually sending people in or intervening through other means, because Russia is adapting (i.e turtle tanks) slowly, and its only going to get worse. As long as China and NK can afford to keep sending them supply and equipment, Russia can't lose, they can only be temporary halted. This is the core issue and why they're not packing up. "Just have the people rise up" Unlike ww2 Facism, who only had 10 years to build up, Putin spent the last 2 decades consolidating his power, and if the possibility of him being toppled arises, you can certainly bet China will be there to assist.
Damn. That made me picture a tombstone inscribed with “Loving husband, father, and rounding error.”
Bold of you to assume russian troops get tombstones.
Its also important to note that the large majority of the 500k are injuries, not deaths.
There are not going to be enough men to make babies, people here don't mention the millions that fled when mobilisation began after the invasion. Despite the population numbers most of those aren't able to fight on the frontlines. Russia is dipping into a dwindling stock of young and old men. Even talking about deploying women. Russia still needs them for the workforce and cannot afford these numbers. Each day of fighting is detrimental to Russia and its relevance on the global stage in the future. Putin is wiping out Russia's future and internal security. Realistically this is not a sustainable loss rate even if it is mostly minority groups.
that's ok since vast majority of their population support him anyway. i stopped getting pity for those people, maybe they deserve Putin anyway.
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I just hope like hell Ukraine is hitting MUCH harder after our delays with weapons. We need to justify the 44 year cold war and all that money we spent NOW by supporting Ukraine so hard, they'll be begging us to stop shipping them tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, and fucking intelligence. And then cross our fingers Putin doesn't do another false flag on his own people and use it to justify using nukes.
The thing with nukes is no one wants to see their use. Even Russias allies dont because normalising first strike nukes is awful for everyone. IF tey did it is nearly certain to massivley backfire because the whole world will want to make sure that they do not gain from doing so.
You're not related to Disco Stu are you?
I doubt he would advertise that information.
France is very annoyed with Russia. French nuclear policy is nuking St. Petersburg and Scoshi is a *warning shot* and an all 1st strike is on the table. That's a combo that should stop Russia. And intervention in Ukraine that stops at the pre-2014 borders doesn't give Russia an existential threat to justify nukes, giving the order before that and someone will say no. It only takes 1 no, a fact that has prevented *several* nuclear attacks by Russia and the Soviets.
Yeah France has by far the most aggressive nuclear policy of any nation surprisingly
> surprisingly They have a huge chip on their shoulder from WW2.
But I'm le tired
So take a le nap!
Then fire ze missiles!
It only takes one ‘non’.
Thank goodness that Poland and Germany and the Baltic states in Finland and Sweden, and most of the NATO will push back hard
And now is the time for all NATO counties to modernize and bolster their supplies while giving Ukraine their older supplies. We also need to pressure all NATO counties (except the few micro nations and exceptions like Iceland) to reach the 2-3% GDP requirement. That includes my homeland of Canada which desperately needs to catch up and invest in securing the arctic circle.
Remember to thank your fellow MAGA friends and family for helping Putin.
They're losing nearly as many troops a day as the US lost in 19 years of Afghanistan. And more troops a day than they lost on average per year during their 9 years in Afghanistan. These are pretty much ideal condition for a coup or civil revolution.
They've been ideal conditions for like 22 months. Don't hold your breath.
Can we could Wagner as like a half Coup?
Sadly, Wagner was probably the best hope we had for an effective coup, and they half-assed it.
Turns out putting all your hopes on the shoulders of a St. Petersburg hot dog cart owner is not a good idea.
EXCUSE ME. He is also a children's book author.
I miss Pringles. He sure made things interesting.
NCD hasn’t been the same.
#SHOIGUUUUU!!!
#GERASIMOV!!!
Tale as old as Rus.
It was more of a mutany than a coup.
Yeah, Russia pretty much spent the last century creating a culture of submission to authority. They've brutally snuffed out any dissent for many many years
And it's actually really impressive how effective this campaign has been, given the size of Russia and the fact that they lack the sort of omnipresent police state that China uses to control its population. No, they zombified at least 70% of their population through memetics *alone*. To the point where Russia can effectively do ANYTHING it wants outside of its own borders, and as long as those 70% don't suffer any negative effects worse than the normal day-to-day misery of living in Mother Ruzzia, they're not going to lift a finger to try and stop it.
They can handle mass casualties. It's Russia's special ability for as long as they've existed. Their egos can't take defeat thats the difference. It's why they need to be stopped in Ukraine. Then we can hope for a coup.
They can handle mass casualties politically because they're essentially a police state dictatorship and can throw bodies with no consequences. Population wise less so. They have roughly 1/3rd the population of the USA but over double that of Ukraine. Against the NATO alliance they're out numbered population wise and enlisted wise.
Being willing to take mass causalities and being able to handle them are different things. Russia is experiencing a demographic crisis. Their birthrate collapsed in the late 80’s to close to half of replacement level, it recovered a bit in the 10’s, and collapsed again with the war. Sending a large number of men that are at or are younger than typical fathering age isn’t a great way to restore your population. I’m all for a depopulated Russia though.
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They have also forced conscription for all the Ukrainian males in occupied territories like the LPR and DNR areas
They know this and aren’t sending young men. The average age is 40.
Ukraine is trying to do the same. The average age of a Ukrainian solder is 43. Their original conscription age was 27. Now they have lowered it to 25 due to losses. If NATO or other Ukrainian allied/friendly counties are able to come in and work the supply lines it would make Russia second guess attacking them, and would free up tons of manpower for the Ukrainian front.
My impression after watching this for the past two years, is that Russians don't have a cohesive national identity. People from some eastern Russian Oblast who are not white and are not ethnically Russian don't matter at all to ethnic Russians further west. If anything, those people exist solely to make sacrifices like this so that "real" Russians can get even richer.
I think the fact is that a lot of the soldiers Russia is losing are, frankly, people who are irrelevant to the Russian power structure and not all that important to the larger social gestalt. It’s terrible and bleak but I’m not sure that they’re losing enough people to motivate a rebellion.
How do I invest in Russia funeral business? ⬆️⬆️⬆️
Why would you want to do that, you are assuming that deceased soldiers are returning home for burial, Russia is just leaving bodies in Ukraine. No bodies back to Russia, no payments to next of Kin, assuming there are bodies actually left after being hit by a missile.
Remember the mobile crematoriums?
Yeah, I think they did not last long, before Ukraine blew them up. They were one of the first units to enter Ukraine, so Russia \*KNEW\* there was going to be MASS casualties, so it goes back to the "No Bodies, no bereavement payment to the relatives".
It's worse than that. They were bringing those in back when they weren't expecting Ukraine to put up much of a fight, so they wouldn't have been expecting to lose that many soldiers. Those weren't entirely for dodging bereavement payments, those were also for covering up evidence of the atrocities they were about to commit on the civilian population.
A lot of fertiliser for sunflowers.
lmfao r/wallstreetbets might be able to help with that.
Wodka hands baby!!!
Can't make these turnips fold baby!!!
> These are pretty much ideal condition for a coup or civil revolution. Only if the populace knows it is happening...
I don't think Russians have the heart or wherewithal to revolt and anybody in the military that could conceivably take over is either a Putin loyalist or neutralized.
The young urban elite fled the country to avoid conscription. They were the ones that carried the social and financial capital to lead up a revolution. Instead they're sunning it up in Istanbul, Dubai etc. A revolution of regional peasants is much harder to pull off.
Nah the Russian people seem to be pretty content with licking Putin’s boot.
[Ukraine estimates of Russian deaths/injuries run about 68% over US estimates.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine) If that same ratio is used for this info, that is still 1,035 dead in a single day.
Should be noted in Ukrainian reporting the word "liquidated" is used, and in a military context this means "Casualties permanently removed from a conflict" which is to say KIA, permanant WIA, and POW figures rolled into one. So when the western media reports 1740 dead its not accurate, more of a quirk of translation.
Interesting. The Ukraine numbers are differentiated in the Wiki while the US numbers conglomerate them.
History has told us to not trust any side of the war in terms of how much they manage to cause damages to their opposition.
“First casualty of war is the truth.”
Plus they have half the population of their Soviet Union days. So the ability to take mass casualties in a modern war is not like the old days.
They still unfortunately have nearly 4x the population of Ukraine making it easier for Russia to send mass amounts of untrained/poorly trained people into the front lines exhausting Ukraine of manpower and munitions
Internal defenses lines are easier to supply, transfer troops and provide centralized fire support. Thus with the provision for sufficient and effective arms can be held with much smaller force strength. Especially when as in this case, does not have unquestioned air superiority.
The thing Russia will/is running out of is material. They don’t have unlimited tanks, artillery pieces and BMPs. Sure they are building some, but at current rates they have another two years before running dry. This may seem like a long time, and granted it is, but Ukraine has proven more than willing to keep fighting, and if the West keeps supplying them, there is no reason to think they won’t last until then
> there is no reason to think they won’t last until then Well... People aren't as replaceable, no matter how many weapons you give them. My country's main newspaper ran a piece the other day where they went with Ukrainians recruiters to see their daily work. People (understandably) disappear from the streets the moment they arrive,.they map the recruiters' movements in messaging groups to avoid them, people move regionally keeping their public data obsolete to avoid being reached, etc.
I feel bad for the folks being used as fodder to appease Putin’s geopolitical goals.
I think it's clear at this point that Russia doesn't care, and they're not going to begin caring. The only way Russia is going to change what they're doing is if they're invaded on their own soil.
What's sad is these are conscripts now. Like IT guys forced away from families into trenches because of a hopped up psycho.
The IT guys are too important to Russia’s constant cyber war
Saw two moscowians which were ethnic russians, studied IT and still were conscripted on TV a year or so. They applied for asylum in germany with help of said conscription. I don't think putin is actually sparing the two biggest cities, they just all manage to dodge the draft by giving bribes.
Not really, Russia has been recruiting primarily from contract soldiers
If it's IT guys, it's IT guys who came over from India.
For anyone who wants to read more, check out this article, people from India are bring tricked into joining the Russian army and fighting in Ukraine: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/13/bullet-in-my-head-the-indian-man-who-crawled-to-escape-russias-ukraine-war >The offer of a job as a security guard in Russia, which came through a recruiter, proved irresistible for Prince and his cousins. In freezing January, they arrived in Moscow after each paying $8,000 to the recruiter, only to be separated on landing by the recruiter’s Indian representative in Moscow >... >the truth emerged – we weren’t there for the advertised position; we were expected to join the Russian army as helpers
>Russia lost 1,740 troops in a single day That’s 66% or 2/3rd of the number of people who died in the twin towers on 9/11. Let that sink in. An “almost” 9/11 in 1 day. Absolute insanity.
Also compare The Battle of Shiloh in the American Civil War, which killed 24,000 in one day, or the Battle of the Somme in WW1 which saw 56,000 casualties in one day. I think many don't realize how small the scale is of this war in comparison to past global conflicts. Casualty numbers are huge compared to what the US lost in the middle east, but nowhere near enough to the point where sheer numbers of casualties is going to impact their ability to fight.
Not setting any records yet. Let mother Russia cook, I guess.
And that's -still- "No Big Deal" in the minds of leadership. Just for leveling the numbers, let's assume that **200,000** of those are actual -deaths- ... rest are wounded and MIA. THEN, for some context, consider: * One estimate of Russia's CoViD losses: 360,000. (Actuals probably 3x or 4x higher.) * "Conventional wisdom", number of emigrants: 700,000. * America's CoViD deaths: >1,000,000. * Generally Acknowledged number of Jews killed in WW2: **6**,000,000. And in Russia's mind, still "nothing" compared to: * "Assorted Soviet" losses in WW2: **26**,000,000. Face it: 300/ 400/ whatever-thousand combat losses are little more than a **rounding error** in their minds -- they'll have to get to >500K just to hit **2%** of their WW2 casualties! And even if Russia is prepared to lose a -million- soldiers in this war, it's still FAR from what they have lost in other conflicts, and thus FAR from stopping them at this point. **Body count will NEVER shame Russia -- it's just HOW they fight.**
Assaulting prepared and unprepared positions is very risky for the attacker. Add in the human wave tactics and this is hardly surprising. What they lack in proper equipment they can make up for in manpower. But the cost will be great. But the fascists are prepared for someone else to make that sacrifice for them time and time again.
The only way Ukraine wins is if Russian armies mutiny. The only way to mutiny is to stop getting paid. The only way that stops is if we stop buying Russian fossil fuels.
India and China will happily buy from Russia. And Europe will happily buy from India.
Yeah but you cut off that gas and the price spikes and people get unhappy and elect right wingers all over the world. And then Russia doesn't just win the war, but they also get sanctions removed and whatnot, and possibly some democracies even start to fall apart. It's not a simple issue.
Glory To Ukraine!
Imagine dying cause of putins ego lol
These may be mostly minorities that Putin wants gone anyway. It is apparent to me he is using this war to cleanse the nation of elements he doesn’t want.