(JustPatriots.com)- The 19FortyFive website says that history demonstrates that Russia is willing to invest significant resources in a military campaign. Regardless of whether it is successful, it can withstand substantial numbers of deaths and casualties and continue to battle. In the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, mobilizing the entire people seems unlikely. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has nevertheless demonstrated his willingness to mobilize only partially and to suffer extra casualties in pursuing a numerical advantage over the foe.
The actual military losses in World War II were studied in 1988 by the military’s General Staff at the request of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The figures were astounding. The war claimed 8,668,400 military lives in the Soviet Union. There were 8,509,300 army and navy combatants in that figure, in addition to 61,400 border guards and 97,700 internal soldiers.
The Nazis wiped out both soldiers and civilians. For instance, the Soviets retook the city of Rzhev from the Germans in 1943. About 50,000 people inhabited Rzhev before the war. There were just 300 people left alive when the Soviets captured the city. This came after the Nazis carried out a brutal act. They assembled those 300 individuals in a chapel that had been bombed so that any survivors would perish. Fortunately, the bombs did not detonate because Red Army soldiers neutralized the charges. The episode demonstrates how terrifying the conflict was for every Russian.
40,000 and 70,000 civilians were murdered in a single day of German bombing by the Luftwaffe during Stalingrad. 800,000 Russians perished from starvation during the Siege of Leningrad. 1.1 million Russian soldiers returned from the conflict with wounds that would leave them permanently crippled. A total of 50,000 men went missing and were never found. The Russian army has already suffered 14,500 casualties in Ukraine and is only three months into the conflict.
According to estimates from the Institute for the Study of War, at least 800 conscripts were killed or injured in Donetsk over one day in early November. The casualties in Ukraine don’t appear to phase Putin or his generals. They are prepared to send more inadequately trained, ineffectively led, and poorly equipped conscripts into battle. Already, some of these new warriors are being massacred.
According to Kyiv’s demands, Russia must leave Ukraine entirely, make reparations, and let its military and political leaders stand trial for war crimes. But, the Kremlin has no intention of granting their demands. This means that as long as the war rages on, there will be more bloodshed; if Russia must send more troops to the front lines to risk being killed or maimed, so be it.
