The website of the pro-government Russian tabloid “Komsomolskaya Pravda” reported that nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war in Ukraine since February 24.
It was not long before the Russian news site deleted this toll, and said in a statement it issued later that it had been hacked.
The Western media quickly caught up with the story and highlighted it. Newspapers, magazines and websites such as “The Guardian”, “Foreign Policy”, “New York Post” and “Daily Mail” published reports on this event, and these media platforms focused on the huge difference between this outcome. The official tally in Russia.
According to the deleted news story, 9,861 Russian soldiers have been killed and more than 16,000 wounded since the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine, as described by Moscow.
This toll is much higher than the official toll, which was announced by the Russian Defense Ministry in early March, and spoke of the death of only about 500 soldiers in battles with the Ukrainians.
On the other hand, Kyiv says that the death toll of the Russian army in Ukraine has amounted to more than 15,000 soldiers, while the American newspaper “The New York Times”, quoting US intelligence sources, stated that the number of Russian soldiers’ deaths reached a minimum of 7,000 within 20 days.
It is difficult to verify these numbers from an independent source.
The publication of news in Russia about the dead in the army is punishable by law, and in some cases amounts to the charge of “high treason”, and the task of announcing this number is limited to the Russian Ministry of Defense only.
Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has published only one report on its losses, as has Ukraine. In daily military announcements, the two sides focused on the losses of the other side, in the context of psychological warfare.
Each side views the issue of losses in its ranks with sensitivity, and does not focus on it in the media for fear of repercussions on the morale of soldiers and citizens.
#Fourth #number #losses #Russian #army #Ukraine #story #great #controversy