THE Wall Street Journal relays a confidential estimate from Ukraine that counts 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers dead on the front. 400,000 men of the Ukrainian army have been wounded since the beginning of the conflict.
For his part, Zelensky announced last February that 31,000 soldiers had died since the start of the war. For Western intelligence services, this figure is much higher. At the same time, on the Russian side, Sergei Shoigu, former Russian Minister of Defense and current Secretary of the National Security Council, reported that 444,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died since the start of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, without specifying whether these were dead or wounded.
Underestimated figures
Our American colleagues detail in their columns that the estimates of Western intelligence services on Russian victims vary.Some estimate the death toll at nearly 200,000 and the injured at around 400,000.“.
The Ukrainian and Russian demographics are shrinking as the conflict progresses. Losses have been mounting on both sides, particularly since the spring when Russia has been conducting large-scale operations on the front line. In Ukraine, the dead have been in the thousands since the offensive in the Russian region of Kursk in early August.
War in Ukraine: Russia increases army troop numbers again in response to Western “hostility”
There are said to have been 600,000 Russians who fled the country at the beginning of the war and the Russian economy is paying the price because of a lack of manpower.Demographics are a priority for Putin, and he wants to use Ukraine and its people to consolidate Russia’s Slavic core.“, says Ivan Krastev, a Bulgarian political scientist, Wall Street Journal.
In Ukraine, 6 million Ukrainians left their lands in February 2022.But for Ukraine, the dilemma is existential: How many people can you lose in a war before you lose your future?“, adds the political scientist.
A collapsing birth rate
The birth rate is also falling in Ukraine. It is said to have reached its lowest level! There were three times more deaths than births in the first half of 2024. Same problem in Russia where the fertility rate is falling because of the number of soldiers dying every day on the front.
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