Russian Summer Casualties Extreme Even By WWII Standards

The Russians appear to believe it's now or never for their war with Ukraine and are willing to expend as many of their troops as necessary to achieve any sort of gain, no matter how insignificant. 

The Ukrainians, by contrast, receiving more and better weapons and ammunition, must just helping the Russians deplete their forces. JL

Phillips O'Brien reports in his substack:

Russian casualties are starting to grow significantly. The Kharkiv Offensive led to the Russians committing troop in another area, and that has led to losses now exceeding 1000 a day. The UK MOD has estimated Russian losses (killed and wounded) exceeded 70,000 over the last two months and should continue at a similar clip for the next two months. These numbers are extreme even by the standards of World War II. This summer will see Russia lose more troops than the US lost in Vietnam. If Russia is willing to throw its future away, Ukraine needs to help it.

There have been reports lately that Russian casualties are starting to grow significantly. The start of the Kharkiv Offensive led to the Russians committing troop in another area, and that has led to losses now exceeding 1000 a day. The UK MOD has estimated that Russian losses (killed and wounded) have exceeded 70,000 over the last two months—and should continue at a similar clip for the next two months.

To give you an idea of the scale of losses, this is now a typical one day loss claim by the Ukrainians. It was just released a few minutes ago.

Note, when it comes to Russian losses of soldiers, Ukrainian claims now seem to be very much on the level with US, UK and other European estimates.

These numbers are extreme by the standards of the post-World War II world. Basically this one summer will see Russia lose probably more troops than the US lost in the entire Vietnam War.

And frankly they are extreme by WWII standards. The US would have been appalled to suffer the kinds of daily losses that Russia is suffering.

However it does seem that Russia is willing to keep expending its troops for a while yet. Stories are that Ukraine is getting some more and more firepower so Russia is trying to maximize what territorial advances it can secure now through its strategy of micro-advancing.

It will mean a continuation of what I’ve been saying for a while. Ukraine needs to fight smart and on the defensive. If Russia is willing to expend its human resources in such an extreme fashion, Ukraine must adjust to that. Ukraine should try and keep its casualties down while extracting as high a toll as possible on Russia.

If Russia is willing to throw its future away, Ukraine needs to let it.

War is horrible—but in this case there is no alternative.