Putin won’t stop Ukraine war until one million of his men are dead, experts warn
Vladimir Putin would happily allow one million of his men to die in Ukraine, an expert has warned.
Today (Thursday, December 22) marked a harrowing milestone in the despot's "special military operation" as the number of Russian soldiers killed surpassed 100,000.
According to the Ukrainian military, Putin has now lost 100,400 men as well as nearly 6,000 armoured personnel vehicles, over 3,000 tanks, 283 planes and 267 helicopters.
READ MORE: Putin's deadly 'Mr Hypersonic' wounded in a*se as Ukraine bomb his birthday meal
If the Ukrainian estimates are accurate, it would mean that Russia has lost an average of 332 soldiers a day since Putin first sent tanks over the border in February.
The staggering failure was compounded by Putin's mobilisation of some 300,000 reservists, many of whom were rushed to the front line without proper training or equipment.
Even before that Russian officers were drafting in the help of prisoners, promising a pardon for their crimes in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
According to Olga Lautman, a US-based Russia expert from the Center for European Policy Analysis, Putin is unlikely to think twice about continuing to carelessly send men to meet their maker.
She told The Sun: "The leadership doesn't care if one million Russians die.
"Look at their commemoration of World War Two, they are proud of the fact that so many millions of Russians were sacrificed."
US-based Russia expert Yuri Felshtinsky, who co-authored 'Blowing up Russia' with the late Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, agreed.
He said: "The price of life in Russia is historically very low.
"Its importance to Russia is often highlighted on the basis of the scale of sacrifice made by the Russian nation."
When Putin announced his mobilisation in September there were reports that the 300,000 number could end up far closer to one million.
Earlier this month Ronald Fricker, a professor of statistics at Virginia Tech, compared the staggering losses to those suffered by US forces in Vietnam.
He told Newsweek: "In terms of the number of deaths from a Russian perspective, one comparison is the effect the Vietnam War had on the United States.
"In that conflict, slightly more than 58,000 US service members died, most occurring over the timespan of about a decade. For those of us old enough to remember it, that war caused substantial societal impacts.
"It is also clear from news reports that this war is not popular with key segments of the Russian population.
"Combine that with a casualty rate roughly double Vietnam's that has occurred over about one tenth of the time, and I am of the opinion that we have yet to see the war's full impacts played out in Russian society."
The Russian death toll in Ukraine is already over six times higher than what the Soviets lost in Afghanistan.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
READ NEXT:
President Zelensky addresses US Congress and says Ukraine's 'alive and kicking'
Vladimir Putin health fears grow as despot scraps big state of the nation speech
Putin 'stunned' by 'beautiful young woman' who was hit with shrapnel while on frontline
Source: Read Full Article