“Pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda has published Defense Ministry figures listing 9,861 dead Russian troops and 16,153 wounded in Ukraine. Huge if true - though this probably won't stay online long https://t.co/okuYWLCX3f”
The pro-Putin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda accidentally published stats on Russian war dead which show a far higher number of fatalities than the Kremlin has previously admitted. Russia reported just under 500 dead, but that was about three weeks ago and no new stats were reported until Komsomolskaya Pravda's article.
9,861 deaths were reported by Komsomolskaya Pravda but an hour later the article was scrubbed with the death toll removed. Here’s the deleted paragraph which was archived.
Ukraine has estimated roughly 15,000 Russian dead as of Tuesday. Updated estimates are reported daily by Ukraine.
For comparison, the Soviet Union’s 9+ year war in Afghanistan cost the lives of 14,453 Soviet troops. If the Soviet-Afghan War had gone as badly as invasion of Ukraine is going for Russia, the Soviet side would have lost 1,074,900 dead; and that’s using the low Komsomolskaya Pravda figure.
I read elsewhere that the 9,861 deaths include only Ministry of Defense troops. Russia has a plethora of security agencies and if those are added to the ministry’s total then the grand total could be very close to what Ukraine has reported.
It’s easy to see why Putin is attempting to suppress the news. But some day the truth will emerge and many people in Russia will be very angry.
