Posted on 09/19/2026 3:19:18 PM PDT by delta7
Tusk’s casualty disclosure and Kushner’s challenge to Putin bring an uncomfortable question into the open: do the assumptions sustaining the Ukraine war still add up?
Diplomacy becomes more difficult when abstractions acquire numbers.
For years, the Ukraine war has been discussed through broad formulations: sufficient support, sustainable defense, battlefield momentum, acceptable terms. They provide governments with considerable room to maneuver because none requires an immediate answer to the harder question of what the war is consuming and whether that consumption can continue.
Donald Tusk has now supplied a number.
Speaking before the Polish parliament, the prime minister said Ukrainian partners had informed him that Ukraine’s recent military casualties were running at approximately 27,000 killed and wounded per month. He described the level as a wartime record. The figure is particularly striking because it came not from Moscow or an outside estimate, but, according to Tusk, from information provided by the Ukrainian side itself.
Taken alone, the number remains difficult to evaluate. Wartime casualty accounting is imprecise, wounded personnel can return to service, and public figures rarely provide a complete picture.
Placed beside another recent Ukrainian statement, however, it becomes considerably more revealing.....
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" to the last Ukrainian" comes to mind.
Post war analysis will be shocking. Over one and a half million Ukie dead is projected.
Truth is the first casualty of war.
We might get an approximate number of casualties on both sides. Give or take a few hundred thousand.
If even that.
The casualties among russian troops must be higher, or Putin would have been in Kiev two or three years ago.
The casualties among russian troops must be higher, or Putin would have been in Kiev two or three years ago.
Another of an endless stream of articles about how Ukraine cannot stand up against Russia, yet after four and a half years Ukraine still stands. Stop blaming the Ukrainians for defending their freedom. Blame Russia for trying to take it away. And what is the cost that Russia is paying for their arrogance? This would all stop if Russia would just go home.
“The casualties among russian troops must be higher”
Now running over 40,000 per month, with over half of those killed. A very high killed to wounded ratio compared to historical norms, because Russian forces are primarily employing small Light Infantry assaults through deep and heavily defended (by drone coverage) kill zones (called “meat wave” attacks).
“an endless stream of articles about how Ukraine cannot stand up against Russia”
The source of this article (The Duran) is somewhat famously a front for Russian FSB psyop talking points on the war.
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