Why Both Sides Are Lying About the Death Toll in Ukraine

Currently, according to the latest UN reports and official statements in recent days from both sides, the number of dead in the War in Ukraine now stands at over 5000. Of course, while this figure is the official toll, there are unfortunately many reasons for us to doubt its veracity.

Sadly, the truth is that both sides have been significantly under reporting the number of soldiers lost, and due to this fact the number of dead in the conflict is probably several thousand more than what is being officially reported. But what motivation do both sides have for this sort of underreporting?

In the case of the Ukrainian Government, the problem is political. While large numbers of troop losses at the hands of the Russian-backed ‘Novorossiya Armed Forces’ (NAF) would help them generate greater international support, the government’s primary problems are domestic. Currently engaged in mass conscription and mobilisation of the country, it is important for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to project an image that the war is being won, or at least that it is winnable.

As it stands, the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) gives daily updates on how many casualties (deaths and injured) they have taken in the previous 24 hours. This being said, the figures given (usually between 1-5 soldiers being killed daily) are often very difficult to believe given the absolutely enormous amount of artillery and multiple rocket launch systems being employed by both sides.

Russian losses in Ukraine approach Soviet casualties in Afghanistan.

Yelena Vasilyeva, the Russian civic activist who created the site tracking Russian casualties of the war in Ukraine today reported some very terrible casualty statistics that confirm what has been reported in social media over the weekend. She reports that Russian “selected” special forces, marines and airborne troops suffered at least 382 killed in action and up to 500 wounded in the last three days. She cautions these are incomplete numbers and relates that only complete remains brought to the morgues in Donetsk are processed and sent to Russia as “Cargo 200”, while Russian forces have stopped processing partial remains such as limbs and other body parts. Instead, these are collected and unceremoniously disposed of in various ways, with no effort to attempt DNA analysis. As a result, she and the Russian Soldiers Mothers group report the number of Russian troops killed in Ukraine since March-April of last year that are confirmed has risen to 6242 and another 5860 have “disappeared without a trace.” If it is assumed that the MIA’s are, in fact, KIA’s, the total exceeds 12,000. The reported number of Soviet soldiers killed in Afghanistan by comparison was 14,453 over a period just exceeding nine years, from 1979 to 1989.

It is another illustration of why the number of 4000+ people killed in Ukraine thus far that is constantly repeated in established media is nonsense. The ability to track these numbers is being further curtailed as the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia has reportedly deployed five mobile cremation KAMAZ units into occupied areas of southeastern Ukraine.

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