Member-only story
Ukraine War: What Happened to the 700k Russian Soldiers?
According to information gathered by the UK Defence Journal in November 2024, the Russian military reportedly lost 700,000 troops since the start of the second invasion in February 2022, based on the information available on the Russian soldiers being killed.
The Russians used the strategy of attrition to break down Ukrainian resistance because, unlike the Russians, the Ukrainian army could not take a one-to-one ratio of deaths, and Ukrainians had to fight with great competence.
(Here is the behind the paywall link.)
In other words, unlike the Russians, the Ukraine cannot send men and women into the meat grinders.
To be more straightforward, using a popular culture analogy, using the TV show Game of Thrones and especially those of Season 3, Robb Stark needs his men more than Tywin Lannister because the Lannisters had more fighting men.
Unfortunately for the Russian soldier, Russia typically fights its wars by throwing bodies at problems until they go away due to internal corruption.
This is partly because Vladimir Putin surrounded himself with yes-men advisers and a purging of talented people.
After all, those talented people would make Putin nervous, and a nervous tyrant does not like to feel fear.
