On Sunday evening, the Washington Post reported that, since December, Russia has lost 20,000 men in Bakhmut alone. The extraordinary figure came from John Kirby, chief spokesman for America’s National Security Council. The next day, another NSC spokesman clarified that the figure actually refers to “all of Russia’s losses across Ukraine, not just in Bakhmut”.
Still, 20,000 dead in only five months of fighting seems high. Is it plausible? We can check using the database compiled by Mediazona and BBC News Service Russia.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion, these two organisations have been tracking Russian deaths by reviewing publicly available reports, such as obituaries, social media posts by relatives, and statements by local authorities. Their method seems far more reliable than making inferences from photos of destroyed equipment – which could be doctored, used out of context or even generated by AI.
As of April 7, they count 19,688 men KIA. This figure corresponds to the Russian Armed Forces and Wagner PMC but not not the DPR and LPR militias. Using the internet archive, we can see that the total count was 9,503 as of December 2. Which means that it has increased by 10,184 since the start of December.
Now, there must be some degree of underestimation as not all deaths are publicly reported. The compilers of the database suggest the true figure may be twice as high. This means that the Russian Armed Forces and Wagner PMC have lost between 10,184 and 20,368 men since the start of December.
We also have to add losses for the DPR and LPR militias. The DPR, which is the larger of the two, documented its own losses “faithfully” (according to the Economist) until December 22, when it ceased documenting them. As of December 22, the figure stood at 4,163. And based on “open sources”, Mediazona and BBC News Service Russia estimated that the LPR had lost around 1,000 men as of November 10.
If we assume these losses occurred at the same rate since the relevant dates as they did before them, total losses since the start of Russia’s invasion would amount to 7,591. Subtracting those from before December yields a figure of 2,636. Note that Mediazona and BBC News Service Russia have independently estimated losses for the two separatist militias at 9,000 – which corresponds to 3,125 since the start of December.
It follows that total losses for Russian forces over the last five months are somewhere between 10,184 + 2,636 = 12,820 and 20,368 + 3,125 = 23,493. The average of these two estimates is 18,156 – making Kirby’s “20,000 figure” highly plausible. Based on the best available information, Russia probably has lost about 20,000 men since December.
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Surprised? Are we? I think not.
And there are some people who think that Musk will improve things. Haha.
Well McCullough has just been put in Twitter jail…how much longer do they realistically think the truth and data which contradicts the narrative can be suppressed or cancelled altogether before even the most sheepish of sheep start smelling a rat? Are we meant to keep on playing along in this pathetic and twisted pantomime for ever more? The thing that Twitter should be doing, if they had any credibility whatsoever, is come back with some evidence which refutes these experts that they are banning left, right and centre, as opposed to just blocking people because they are an inconvenience to The Agenda. But they don’t. Because they can’t.
Millions continue using Twitter, including many who are profoundly disgusted by the behaviour of Twitter. As long as that continues, then the pantomime will continue.
Correct. The best response is to close down your account if you have one.
Is there an update to Stockholm Syndrome – Twitter Syndrome?
I don’t understand why the abused cling to their abusers. It has some psychological explaintion apparently, involving an evolved dependency, not wanting to feel rejected, insecurity, the fear of being unable to go it alone.
The only way to force a business to change – or go belly up – is to stop using it.
In some ways it’s really pretty dangerous that we are not surprised.
This is completely insane. When sheer madness no longer surprises us we know we’ve reached a dark place.
Musk is not yet the owner so has no control.
I do love the way that, ironically, all Twitter are doing ( and Big Tech in general ) is advertising the fact, far and wide, that people need to wake TFU and smell the coffee. They are inadvertently *making* people suspicious and ask the damn questions, challenging the official narrative and what authority figures are telling them. They are sabotaging themselves and the consequences will be that more people will wake up thanks to the ongoing censorship of the truth. “The truth will out” has never felt so real.
Indeed, I think once they start censoring duly appointed, serving state officials as they have done here, the cat is out of the bag. Of course they cancelled Trump, but that was after he left office and he was a polarising figure so probably more or less everyone who was a supporter deplored the decision and everyone else approved of it.
Yes agreed, and a public health official at that. On that basis it would be allowable for a social media company to censor statements by Fauci or Walensky. Is the serpent starting to eat its own tail?
Didn’t they cancel Trump whilst he was still President?
That’s the conundrum of censorship. Ban something and it will make people even more curious as to what was being said. Keep it up lefties!
Exactly. And when you look at the calibre and credentials of the many who have been banned ( whether permanently or since had accounts reinstated) then you can’t really argue that they’re crackpots with an agenda to spread misinformation. That itself is just absurd and should get people thinking. Let Big Tech dig their own grave!
I feel compelled to share this song again, “The Sound of Silenced Science” because it is absolutely pertinent to this article. Yet another name to be added to Twitter jail. They will try and silence science at whatever cost, but their downfall is assuming we are all as thick as the proverbial. When enough people realise that their own lived experience does not tally with the narrative they hear from the MSM then it’s only a matter of time until that tipping point occurs.
https://odysee.com/@VisceralAdventure:9/Sound-of-Silenced-Science:5
Because the fact checkers know so much more about medicine and have treated so many patients much more than the head of health for florida a man who has treated patients and written multiple peer reviewed research papers.
Surely the plaster is now coming off that this club of need oligarchs who believe they own and run the world are nothing less than a malignant cancer that needs yo be cut out of society.
clearly the thoughts of chairman Zuckerberg Gates and the bloke who runs twitter are the dangerous spreaders of misinformation and are the ones who need to be shut down.
daily sceptic instgram gone so is rfk s
and lately this shows up i dont even know how to ‘share’! it wont let me ‘ like ‘ or comment
waste of time anyway but thought would mention more censorship .
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This article, reproduced in yesterday’s DS is fascinating in how it joins the dots, though maybe it lets Twitter off the hook a bit too easily. Ladapo clearly has pretty irrefutable evidence that would stand up to some examination, as such the charge of ‘misinformation’ fails. I think Twitter is in the dock, they can’t rely on the defence that they’re being bullied by the EU. This should get interesting, will it be the dividing line for DeSantos, will he back his man?
How the EU is Imposing Brutal Online Censorship of ‘COVID-19 Disinformation’ on the Whole World – The Daily Sceptic
As of now at least from where I am currently in the Dominican Republic, I am able to view his tweet without any issues. Perhaps Twitter backed down.
They did.
Maybe initially flagged by an algorithm and reviewed by a human in appeal
Possibly. Still a massive own goal to remove a tweet from the Surgeon General. The more own goals they score, the more the propaganda & manipulation is exposed, albeit slowly, & sadly for many too slowly to prevent injury or death.
Florida warns against jabbing men under 40 due to 84% increase in cardiac death risk
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/florida-warns-against-jabbing-men-under-40-due-to-84-increase-in-cardiac-death-risk/
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I cannot understand why so many people use social media. Can anybody tell me what good it does? Working throughout the Hong Kong flu epidemic in 1968/9, an epidemic with a much higher infection rate across all ages, the NHS was not shut down and the country carried on as normal.
Maybe that was because 24 hr rolling news, driven by social media, didn’t exist? Remember, if the product you are using is free then you are the product.
I don’t use social media as hqv8ng looked at it, it has no utility for me.
What ‘good’ does it do: what good does any fad do? And that is what social media is, a fad. It hasn’t been around that long – although it feels like an eternity – and it will in due course, like all fads, be replaced by the next one.
If only I knew what that was I would be in the money.