We need independent verification of many of the claims coming from both sides in this war. I cannot believe any source for anything until then because the press is totally devoid of all credibility after all of the years of nonsense.
Exactly.
So many Russian aircraft are being shot down with shoulder fired missiles with a 3 mile range (1 of which is climbing to altitude) that they don’t really WANT a No Fly zone. They want those Russian planes to fly over Ukraine. Why have a No Fly zone if you can shoot them down?
So the begging for No Fly is all a deception of war. Not sure who they are fooling, but it’s gotta be someone.
If you want to you can look at the newspaper reports of funerals in Russia from their local news websites. I would expect that they don't have funerals for people who did not die.
You can also estimate combat fatalities from images of armored vehicles and trucks that were destroyed with a crew in them, and from videos and photographs of bodies that were killed or are dying in combat. Those images are available on Telegram and other places.
In any event it is tragic that many young people are dying as a result of Putin's decision to invade a neighboring country.