Tuesday 7 March 2023

The casualty rate in Ukraine is beyond staggering

How much longer can Ukraine - and for that matter Russia - continue to suffer such a staggering high casualty rate? Into the second year of the war and the statistics are so appalling it is unimaginable what the killed and wounded toll will be at the end of 2023. The Ukrainians are understandably being shy about their war victims but we know from US military estimates that it's more than 100,000. It's probably true to estimate that overall, Ukrainians and Russians, the total figure is closer to 300,000. In Bakhmut alone, where the fighting is fiercest at the moment, the Russians are estimated to have suffered 30,000 dead and injured. How many Ukrainians, military and civilian, have died or been wounded in this nearly destroyed city is unknown. War is a relentless nightmare of killings and disfigurings. There is almost nothing positive that one can say about war of any kind, regional or global, other than when the right and moral side wins and the aggressor is soundly defeated. If only one could confidently predict that Ukraine will win and Russia will be defeated. It may happen, but in the meantime more and more people are going to die or suffer life-changing injuries. One can only feel total despair.

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