Ulraine’s tally of dead Russians is growing by the second.
At least, that’s what Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have people believe.
Those figures, however, as well as all information from the war, should be met with intense skepticism, especially when compared to Russia’s death tolls from other recent conflicts.
Last Wednesday, Zelenskyy, gave a televised address in which he asserted that Ukraine had claimed the lives of 6,000 Russian soldiers since the invasion began.
“Think of this number: almost 6,000 Russians died. Russian military. In six days of war,” Zelenskyy claimed.
Meanwhile, the alleged Russian death toll climbed to 10,000 by March 5, then over 11,000 on March 6, according to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian propaganda machine has been working in overdrive to present the best possible face.
Stories like the “Ghost of Kyiv” and alleged photos of Ukrainian politicians taking up arms to defend their country are meant not only to inspire Ukrainians but convince Western nations that they might be able to stave off the invasion if given the proper help and resources.
When those efforts failed to inspire further Western engagement, the Ukrainians accused Russia of war crimes, such as claiming that Russia was attempting to trigger nuclear meltdowns in Chernobyl and Zaporizhia—a claim that was quickly debunked.
If the previous experience of the Russian military in the post-Cold War era has any bearing on what’s currently unfolding in Ukraine, it’s likely Russia’s estimates and framing of the conflict are closer to reality than Ukraine’s.
In the Second Chechen War, fought between Russia and the Islamist fighters of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Russia sought to regain control over Chechnya after failing to do so during the First Chechen War, which lasted from 1994 to 1996.
Russia’s new prime minister, a former KGB agent and director of the Federal Security Service named Vladimir Putin, argued the situation in Chechnya was untenable, and its independence provided protection for terrorists who carried out attacks on the Russian people, such as the Russian apartment bombings.
When an army of about 2,000 led by the Chechnya-based Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade’s Shamil Basayev attempted to invade the Russian republic of Dagestan on August 7, 1999, Putin had undeniable justification for war.
On August 26, Russia began its advance into Chechnya.
After a siege that lasted from December 1999 to February 2000, Russia established control over the Chechen capital city of Grozny by almost leveling it completely.
Over the course of the siege, Putin became president. By late May, Russia controlled enough of Chechnya to declare direct rule over it, marking an end to the major fighting in the conflict, though insurgency efforts continued for nearly another decade.
The brutal war exacted a heavy human toll. NGOs estimated civilian casualties to be anywhere between 25,000 and 250,000. An article from the Chicago Tribune dated November 24, 1999, about three months into the fighting, claimed that Russia was losing troops at the same rate as the Soviet Union did in its failed invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. “Since fighting began in August in neighboring Dagestan and then moved into Chechnya, the Russians have lost at least 462 soldiers, according to official statistics. A further 1,485 Russian soldiers have been wounded,” the Tribune reported.
Ukraine, as Zelenskyy would have us believe, has killed 24 times as many Russians in the first week of the current conflict as the Russians lost in the first three months of the Second Chechen War.
In total, pro-Russia forces suffered just over 7,000 fatalities in the entirety of the decade-long Second Chechen War. Ukraine’s armed forces claim they’ve already surpassed that.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/ukraine-jumps-the-shark/
