After 27 days of the war, the dead in Ukraine are undercounted. There is no reliable balance of casualties suffered by the two sides. All the technological sophistication of the new – and very expensive – weapons contrasts with the opacity of Kyiv and Moscow when it comes to reporting something as simple, quantifiable, and earthly as the number of lives lost.
Nothing new, on the other hand, only that, in theory, humanity lives in the most transparent, fluid, and free era in terms of information.
The issue became topical after a newspaper close to President Vladimir Putin, the Komsomolskaya Pravda It slipped the night before last that Russian troops had suffered 9,861 deaths and 16,153 wounded, a devastating figure for the victorious war reports issued by Russia.
The last official count from Moscow, released on March 2, put the casualties at 498. True to its header – Pravda means “truth” – and even more faithful to the Kremlin, the media withdrew the news in a matter of minutes, flatly denied the figure yesterday – without giving another – and attributed its dissemination to sabotage by hackers.
Who to believe? The Ukrainian government does not seem very demanding with the truth regarding the dead, although it does not hinder –at all– the work of the hundreds of foreign journalists deployed in its territory. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimated yesterday that the enemy has lost 15,300 men, or 566 daily. A figure higher than the 15,000 registered throughout the ten years of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, between 1979 and 1989.
Russia admits less than 500 dead and Ukraine claims to have caused 15,300 casualties to the invaders
Sources from the European Union estimate that the Russians are suffering a bloodletting in Ukraine, the highest for their army since the Second World War, at the rate of a thousand daily casualties, between wounded and dead.
For their part, the United States military sources, anonymous and unofficial but emanating from the Pentagon, give an oscillation of 6,000 to 8,000 dead, of the 150,000 men deployed on the Ukraine fronts.
Like so many things, the facts are difficult to verify and are subject to the declarations of organizations, ministries, and armies whose priority is to win the war, demoralize the enemy and keep the morale of the troops and the citizens who support them high. Yesterday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported the success achieved in regaining control of the suburb of Makariv, in Kyiv, which in turn allows control of one of the most important access highways to the capital. US military sources point out that Russian troops are not advancing towards the capital – there are signs of serious logistical and supply failures – but they have not backed down either.
“In the worst case we will die, but we will never give up”, was the message sent yesterday by the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klichkó, to the Council of Europe. Given the facts, whether it be the Numantine resistance in Mariupol or the protests by citizens against Russian tanks in the streets of Kherson, in the south, the proclamation seems plausible. And it anticipates a longer war than almost everyone anticipated.
“No one from the outside can tell if Mariupol is about to be taken,” estimates Keir Giles, a Russia specialist at the thinktank British Chatham House. The situation continues to be dramatic and to all the land sieges are now added the bombardments from the warships deployed by Russia, which dominates the seas and the air although this is not bringing it spectacular conquests. According to US military sources, Russia has 21 warships in the Black Sea and another seven in the Sea of Azov for whatever it likes, be it blocking Ukraine’s maritime access or bombing whatever cities it wants, such as He did it for the first time over the weekend with Odesa, as a warning.
European Union sources estimate that the Russians are bleeding worse than in Afghanistan
There are fewer and fewer points and relevant cities that have not received this type of warning, in the psychological war to demoralize the population whom they said they wanted to rescue from Nazism and Russophobia. Mankind has known more sensible public relations campaigns…
Mariupol’s resistance strengthens Ukrainian pride and postpones the concentration of Russian troops in other areas. If the case arises, it will not be easy for the invading troops to remain in cities where they are not welcome and the population acts with courage and defiance, recalling the uprisings, distant in time but indelible, of Budapest in 1956 or Prague in 1968. They evoked the images of yesterday on an avenue in Kherson, the only city taken by the Russians, where soldiers fired bursts to drive away protesters who insulted them meters from their tanks. Everything in this war is old and vintage, except the progress in armament. There yes: pure XXI century.