On 30th November, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated in a video posted on her Twitter account, “it is estimated that more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far”. Minutes later, the tweet was deleted and a new video was posted with the preceding statement removed.
This has led many sceptics to claim that von der Leyen accidentally let slip the true number of Ukrainian military deaths – “more than 100,000” – before scrambling to delete the evidence, possibly at the behest of the Ukrainian government.
We’re assuming here that when she said “military officers”, she really meant “soldiers”, since most soldiers are not officers, and the number of officers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine isn’t even close to 100,000.
In this case, though, I’m sceptical that the sceptics are right.
About half an hour after the original tweet was posted, a spokeswoman for the EU Commission thanked those “those who pointed out the inaccuracy regarding the figures”, and clarified that “the estimation used, from external sources, should have referred to casualties, i.e. both killed and injured”.
So “more than 100,000” actually referred to the total number of casualties, not the total number of deaths. And since the typical ratio of wounded to dead is 3:1, this would equate to about 25,000 deaths.
Of course, we shouldn’t necessarily believe everything the EU Commission says. Are there any other reasons to doubt that “more than 100,000” Ukrainian soldiers have been killed? Yes.
On 21st September, the Russian Defense Minister claimed that 61,207 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. This figure is almost certainly an exaggeration, given that the Russians have an incentive to overstate their enemy’s losses (just as the Ukrainians have an incentive to overstate their enemy’s losses).
But if we accept it for the sake of argument, and assume that Ukrainian soldiers were killed at the same rate during October and November, the total number of military deaths for the period up to 30th November would be ‘only’ 81,707. So even if we take an exaggerated figure as our starting point, we still get an estimate that’s almost 20% lower than the one von der Leyen gave.
Rather than von der Leyen having mistakenly blabbed a closely guarded secret, what seems more likely is that she (or her speechwriter) just got confused between deaths and casualties – with the 100,000 number having been copy-pasted from the recent statement by U.S. General Milley.
We still don’t know how many Ukrainian soldiers have died in Ukraine, but the true figure’s almost certainly less than 82,000, though probably greater than 25,000.
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No, 150.000 have died. 2 x that injured. They are Biden’s proxy troops. Time to end the conflict, the money laundering, the massive military contracts, the fly-ins to Keev by the elite….and let’s have a look at those US biolabs shall we? Let’s see if they are making Rona Part II or aspirin as they claim, fighting hard for the health of the little guy in the Uketopia etc.
Given that the Ukrainians do not bring the bodies of many of their dead from the battlefield (there is photographic evidence for that), and only count the ones that they do retrieve, then this goes a long way to explain the discrepancies between the figures.
Whatever the true figure, it is too many.
Pure blood and just about reproductive, they’re going to need a lot of healthy, strapping young lads in Russia and Ukraine when the dust settles. Time to break out Duolingo.
Or we could export the Albanians.
All that’s certain is that every single one of them on both sides since early April goes on Boris Johnson’s account.
Boris couldn’t start a catfight in a whorehouse It’s the #NATO top brass who may struggle to wash the blood off their hands …
I noticed the other day that the Ukraine Premier League, U21, U18 and Womens Super League fixtures have all been played The stadiums are empty, but the leagues have been played. Seemed a little strange to me that they haven’t been suspended. That is all…
Tens of thousands of dead Ukrainian soldiers, never mind the Russians, just because the US wanted to fight Russia through the proxy making a mess in Europe and hugely benefitting from it in all possible respects. And Ukraine is only going one way to becoming a failed (non)state. just a reminder that straight after the invasion russia’s demands were more than reasonable: neutrality, recognition of Crimea and independence for the break away republics with Ukraine being ready to compromise. But here comes Churchill wannabe, US lapdog BoJo and demands more Ukrainian deaths and destruction in exchange for riches to corrupt Zelensky and his regime.
Evidence for the degree of EU competence continues to appear.
“Ukrainian casualties too have been huge. Estimates range from 75,000 to 85,000 killed – not counting wounded, missing, and civilian deaths – and this is unsustainable. ” … The Ukraine War one year on, Part 1: Putin bloodied but unbeaten – The Conservative Woman
Written by Lieutenant-General Jonathon Riley
Lt Gen Riley is a former commander of British Forces in Sierra Leone and Iraq and Deputy Commander of all Nato forces in Afghanistan…. If anyone knows I figure he might …
‘We still don’t know how many Ukrainian soldiers have died in Ukraine, but the true figure’s almost certainly less than 82,000, though probably greater than 25,000.’
We do know that not a single one of these guesstimated horrific deaths of living and breathing human beings with families and loved ones would have happened if the Putin regime had not ordered the neo-fascist invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Exactly the same sympathy applies to the Russian casualties of this completely avoidable tragedy.
There is only one humanity and one spiritual-moral code; the one based on compassion and non-violence.
Er, sorry, what is the point of this article? He said, she said…lots of big numbers, lots of lying…so, business as usual in a war. Mmmm.