What is a Russian life worth to the regime? Putin’s thirteen categories of russian losses explained
Russia has likely lost over 200.000 men in this war, but not all of these men are equally important to the regime in Moscow
First of all, let’s talk about the losses in general. Many numbers are thrown around. I have talked about Russia’s losses at length.
The US only seems to count the losses that the regular Russian army has suffered. However, the Russian army has many other men in its employ that fight for Putin’s crime empire.
The original invasion force was likely much larger than we had originally thought. This tier system has thirteen categories. The further down in the list we go, the less important they become to the Russian regime.
Experts assume that 400 to 500 dead soldiers fighting for Russia die every day
Roughly, another 800 to 1000 have been wounded on average since the war began. Russia’s own calculations are quite useless. They simply don’t count their losses. Ukraine’s own count includes more than just Russian soldiers. It also includes those who fight for Russia.
It is very likely that Russia has suffered more than half a million casaulties in this war. This would likely also include those who are absent without leave(AWOL). The prisoners of war (POW). And those that died due to accidents or other causes (food poisoning, the weather, hypothermia).
Today, I will try to answer the following questions.
How do these losses come together?
Why aren’t these losses equally important to the regime?
The initial invasion force was much larger than 200.000 men, but not all of them were soldiers of the Russian army
Many of these men came from the occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Others came from the mercenary force Wagner. In smaller quantities, Syrian mercenaries and fighters from Chechnya are also fighting for Russia.
The occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk are almost void of fighting age males. This is another horrendous crime committed by the Putin regime. The list of these crimes is getting longer every day.
The occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk had a population of roughly 1.5 million in 2014
Let’s assume that roughly 500.000 of these people have either fled west or east until February 24th, 2022. Out of the remaining 1 million people, 500.000 are women, and 250.000 are either too young or too old to fight.
That means Putin had a manpower pool of 250.000 to draw from. Putin has drawn in many of them. It seems likely that 60.000 to 70.000 of these men are now dead.
Russia is drawing in 65 year old officers. Russia reinstates formations from the Second World War. This is more anecdotal evidence that everything is going according to Putin’s plan. If that was his plan, then Putin is not very good at making plans, it seems.
That means Putin has likely successfully carried out one part of his genocidal plans
That is how Putin’s protection of the Donbas region looks like. For those who paid attention, this was clear from the start. After Putin had bombed Mariupol into rubble. Putin’s goal became quite clear. Russia came to conquer and occupy Ukraine. Russia came to commit another genocide in Ukraine.
Russia’s liberation is historically a very unpleasant event for most of those it has liberated and “protected”
Why should an unfree nation come to liberate anyone? Russians aren’t even free themselves. Russians tried to make Ukraine free of only one thing: Freedom. Russia has wiped out these Donbas conscripts. Russia’s regime has let them walk straight into a meat grinder. Russia wants the land, the people are just in Putin’s way.
This is a terrible tragedy for the Donbas people, but Putin doesn’t care whether they live or die
Additionally, there are roughly 50.000 Wagnerites that have died in combat and 10.000 Chechens. Then, there are other mercenaries from all around the globe. Roughly 70.000 to 80.000 regular Russian soldiers have died as well. The total comes close to Ukraine’s own calculations.
How much does one life really matter to the Putin regime?
Jake Broe, an American blogger, came up with a compelling list. His ranking goes from those that matter the most to Putin to those which his regime cares about the least. This may appear strange to people in the West. But in a dictatorship. This disregard for human life is the reality its subjects find themselves in. Putin views Russia as his personal property, which includes the people living there.
1) Russian elite soldiers (marines, spetsnaz, pilots, Russia's best, and even those suffered heavy losses)
2) Chechens (they appear to have freedom of movement and all the equipment necessary. We often call them the “Tik Tok brigade.” For some reason, Kadyrov’s men take a very prominent position inside the Russian power structure.
3) Wagner elite forces (ex military pilots, these men are very valuable to Putin)
4) Russian contract soldiers (these are Russian men who have volunteered to fight for Russia. Putin and his generals try to keep them alive as they have chosen to fight for Putin’s war of expansion)
5) Wagner contract soldiers (These are the enforcers of the regime. They are not used as canonfodder or in human wave attacks. These men are the ones with the guns. They are shooting everyone who retreats. You could view them as a sort of military police force who keep order in the ranks by using a whip)
6) Russian mobilized men (These are veterans, and they should know what they are doing. Even though sometimes it feels as if they don’t know what they got themselves into.)
7) Russian conscripts (These are 18 - 20 year old children. They are not experienced. There appears to be a hierarchy among them as well. Those from Moscow, Petersburg have higher chances of survival. The further east in the empire we go, the less these boys matter for Putin)
8) DPR/LPR “self-proclaimed Donbas people’s republics” ( These are contract soldiers who wanted to do this. These men are the enforcers, and therefore, Putin needs them, they are also most loyal to him)
9) DPR/LPR conscripts (These men were grabbed from the street or taken from their homes against their will, Putin doesn’t care about them. We could see that he even mocked them by sending them into battle with nothing more than weapons from World War II in some cases)
10) Forced conscripts from the other occupied territory of Ukraine (i.e., Mariupol, Melitopol, Cherson)
11) Russian prisoners and other “undesirables from within the Federation (The Russian MoD took prisoners recently similar to what Wagner did earlier in the war) It is not in Russia’s interest that these men survive. Or at least they are sent out to perform tasks that make their survival very unlikely.
12) Wagner prisoners ( These are the men that Wagern is using on the frontline as “canonfodder.” I don’t like this word, but for the lack of a better term, this is what is happening to them.)
13) Mercenaries from Syria / Africa / Central Asia (These men are often tricked into signing a contract. For example, Central Asians are often working as farm hands in Russia. Then Russia offers them money, but I doubt that Russia cares if they live or die)
These men know who gets better treatment and who will live or die
This system is a very sophisticated abuse of power on many different levels. This system also shows a brutal disregard for human life. This fascist power cheers its onward course by a barbarous paganism. Russia doesn’t care what happens to these men. How little he cares about their lives is best shown by some anecdotal evidence from the battlefields of Ukraine.
The atrocious abuse that Russian service men suffer from in this system is bizarre
The following incidents must weigh heavily on the morale of these men. This also shows just how inadequately equipped this “army” is to wage a symmetric war. They can fight hybrid wars, but Russia won’t ever win against a formidable and well-organised force such as Ukraine.
- Russians are robbed at checkpoints upon their return
Those soldiers who are returning from the war often experience abuse. As in this case, this Russian soldier got robbed by the military police at a checkpoint. Russia is a sad place. The corruption and power abuse is deeply systemic. There is no quick fix for these problems. Especially not during war time.
2. Medieval punishments and lack of supplies
The military doesn’t even give them guns everywhere. Soon it’ll be like in Soviet times: one has a rifle, the other has ammunition
Russia will suffer a poverty driven and crushing defeat. Russia returns to medieval practices of punishment. Chris O reports that people are thrown into “Zindans.” This is a sort of open-air dungeon. These reports appear to come from another by gone age.
That’s because these practices are coming from another age. History is not repeating itself, but it echoes
Many parts of the Russian army are led like a Tsarist army of the 18th century. It will also lose like a Tsarist army of the 18th century. These practices are barbaric and inhumane. Putin’s vertical of power is nothing but a criminal enterprise. This man is no president he is a mafia mobster. Putin’s rule is illegitimate. It’s based on violence, robbery, corruption, and murder.
Some of the soldiers have been there for days, and some have been there for months — one of them has been in such conditions for five months. He began to suffer health problems, but the authorities reply to complaints of his relatives with runarounds.
Field reports show an increasing lack of basic medical supplies
Chris O reports that untrained mobilized soldiers were led by a Wagner guide. He brought them to the trenches near Bakhmut without food. He threatened to kill them should they flee or get wounded. The trench where this soldier served was covered in bodies. Such reports leave me speechless, to be honest.
However, this is the enemy Ukraine is fighting. This is the enemy that the West is facing
It is still shocking to me how brutish Russia acts towards its own men. We can only imagine what they are doing to Ukrainians, which are captured. Often, we don’t even have to imagine it.
The world has seen the torture chambers in the occupied territories. The world saw the massacres of Bucha. Russia denies such atrocities. The free world can’t allow Putin and his men to get away with mass murder.
3. The treatment of the wounded
The lack of supplies, the lack of logistics, and the lack of competent personnel are a fatal mix
These circumstances result in a death to wounded ratio of almost 3:1. We have not seen such atrocious numbers in the recent history of warfare. Russia has left people behind. They often simply lack the necessary logistics to transport their wounded soldiers to a field hopsital.
Russia will at least try to tend to the wounds of the top tier on the list
However, for those who are on the bottom of the list? It’s every man or woman for him or herself in this case. Unless you think this tier theory is nonsense. If that is the case. Then please let me know in the comments. I recommend reading the whole thread of Chris O. The stories from the field hospitals are not surprising to me. However, they are shockingly bleak.
The most you can get is a slight injury. If you get something more – that’s it, you will die," says a Russian military paramedic. His comments highlight the terrible state of medical care in the Russian army, which is causing untold tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Chris O quoted a Russian military paramedic
Summary and Conclusion
You can find more examples in the source material. Russia has introduced “hero desks” to indoctrinate its youth to die for the empire in a few years' time. There are reports of the torture of Russian servicemen from Bashkortostan from September 2022.
Many elements of the Russian army aren’t really an army anymore. This is a badly led uncoordinated mob. Such a mob won’t win a war against a NATO equipped and NATO trained force. Deep down, Russia must have already realised this.
These are just some examples of this Russian tier system
These kids in Moscow’s schools are prepared for the top tier of the list. As long as you live in the right region, you will be worth at least something Putin’s Russia, for now. These men from Bashkortostan are at the bottom of this hierarchy.
The multipolar world in Putin’s image is the rule of the jungle, and his regime is barbaric
The free world must flex its muscles to see this barbaric venture fail. Putin turns the Russian population into 19th-century serfs. The West can’t allow Putin to succeed. No one said this would be easy. Still, Russia must be held accountable for its crimes, just as we held the Nazis accountable for theirs.
Our principles are not negotiable, and these rules exist for a good reason
The rules based order has ushered in 80 years of relative peace in Europe. We can’t let this madman and his collaborators destroy that. The West must accept a simple truth. This regime is our enemy. There can be no peace with this regime. We can’t meet this evil halfway. Russia must answer for its crimes. In the end, war is a battle of superior will and superior logistics.
We can’t let Putin get away with murder at home and abroad
My first concern is Ukraine and the restoration of its sovereignty. However, there are more people that the Kremlin oppresses. If we are serious about our rules based order. Then the West can’t forget about Africa, Syria, and those that Moscow represses within its own borders. Russia’s brutality is global. We will need a global strategy to stop this madness.
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Sources:
https://www.ibtimes.com/500-more-russian-soldiers-die-one-day-total-death-toll-hits-88800-3642167