Russia suffers ‘record’ soldier casualties as Ukraine ups drone production
Posted by polymute@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 90 comments
Posted by polymute@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 90 comments
SubtiltyCypress@reddit
The Russia glazing here is intense. If they really think Russia is doing better than Ukraine that badly, they should totally join the Russian army and tell us themselves how it is there.
Professional-Syrup-0@reddit
How about you follow what you preach instead of accusing everybody else of being hypocritical strawmen?
SubtiltyCypress@reddit
So you talk how much better Russia is doing and others saying how much lying Ukraine is doing but youre not willing to show us yourself the proof. So I gave an option to. And once instead of proving your info is true you tell me my argument is a strawman. Must be a bot, without proof nothing you say is correct.
loggy_sci@reddit
It’s a bot
Red_Lola_@reddit
If you dont think that Russia is falling apart tomorrow (but its also a serious threat to Europe and we should all arm asap), then you're clearly a Russia glazer and should join Russian army!
finalattack123@reddit
Russia is also increasing drone production. So we need to be realistic about what the outcomes likely to be.
Without external support - this will be a very hard fought battle with Ukraine always on the back foot.
MarderFucher@reddit
Both sides are increasing and developping drones. But if you gauge the temperature through military bloggers of both sides as I do, there is a very notable dynamic whereas Ukraine dominated from start till mid to late 2024, when the Drone Wall stopped what meany feared will be a collapse, then russian reorganisation (fiber optic drones, Rubicon) started give russia an edge as seen by retaking Kurks and the tenous state of many frontlines - Pokrovsk, Lyman, Kupyansk, Zapo, with notable advances. The UA mood in late '24 to mid '25 was generally quite pessimistic among many people I follow.
But Ukraine adapted too with the fragmented drone effort being reworked under the USF, plus with Starlink shutdown on russian side which basically killed their dangerous and booming mid-range strikes, means currently Ukraine is back on the advantage. I'm seeing previously heavily critical now praising they finally started hunting logistics- Search for posts talking about the "little sky" as UA/RU bloggers call it.
The sanction excemption was a waiver that expired since and only affected tankers at sea. The price increase russia isn't profiting from thanks to Ukraine shutting down substantial chunk of their oil exports.
SludgeFilter@reddit
Not just Russia but China who just probably ships bunch of separate parts with instructions.
Lapkonium@reddit
This is a quite odd article coming from Aljazeera, especially given that tgey give the source away in the first paragraph:
And then carry on writing the article without using any other insight. If there is anything anyone learned about war reporting is that the adversaries’ casualty claims are not to be trusted.
donnydodo@reddit
Qatar has been hit by Iran, Iran is a Russian ally. Qatar now starts publishing the Russia 50,000 casualties a month articles.
Professional-Syrup-0@reddit
Iran is not an “ally” to Russia, nor to China.
That kind of framing mostly comes from the Western camp who also love to claim China is somehow in the side of Russia and regularly invent imaginary axis of “evil/autocracy/whatever” to justify waging war in far away places.
It’s something Zelensky loves to lean in heavily these days to make the war in Iran out as related to Ukraine, so people forget who attacked whom first and instead make it about imaginary “teams” fighting each other and we are obviously supposed to support the “good team” the team “human rights and democracy”.
Which is a weird spin considering for the last 4 years we’ve been blasted with how the aggressor is always in the wrong regardless of circumstances or any other factors.
Guess the same somehow does not apply to the US or Israel..
Short-Recording587@reddit
Iran is sending drones to Russia to kill Ukrainians. Really no different than the US sending weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians. If you’re going to get upset with the US for doing that then you’d be equally upset at Iran for doing the same thing.
weizikeng@reddit
Bro what tankie air are you breathing… Iran provided Russia with lots of drones, so they are obviously partners
BendicantMias@reddit
Russia makes those drones itself now. It doesn't rely on Iran. Hasn't for a long time.
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
“Provided”? Do you mean sold? Iranians are sanctioned to hell by the west, of course they’re going to sell their equipment to who will buy it.
Czart@reddit
But when europeans are selling weapons to israel it's "supporting genocide".
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
The argument was never “arms sales are fine.”
It was that arms sales don’t imply partnership.
Those are compatible positions.
You can think selling to Israel is supporting genocide AND think Iran selling to Russia is just sanctions evasion, they’re not mutually exclusive.
Czart@reddit
Okay, so europeans are just selling weapons, doesn't mean they approve of what's happening. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
Saying European arms sales “support genocide” is a moral claim about what the weapons are doing.
Saying Iran and Russia are “obviously partners” is a claim about their relationship.
You just swapped one for the other, and tried to act like it was some kind of win. Cringe.
Czart@reddit
Europeans selling weapons that blow up civilians: "MURDEROUS MONSTERS REEE"
Iran selling weapons that blow up civilians: "Umm akshually this isn't a moral claim and it's blah blah blah".
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
Eugh my guy, making up shadows for you to fight when you lose an argument is certainly a choice.
Nobody said Iran selling weapons isn’t a moral issue.
The argument was specifically about whether it constitutes a partnership. You’ve abandoned that debate entirely because you lost it.
northrupthebandgeek@reddit
That'd be a useful point if Iran was selling, like, cars or something instead of weapons systems.
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
I’m not sure why you think it being weapons changes anything?
northrupthebandgeek@reddit
I'm not sure why you think it being weapons doesn't change the point. Most countries don't sell military hardware to other countries unless they're on at minimum friendly terms with said other countries.
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
I was aware it was weapons they were selling when I wrote that comment… idk why you think at all that would change my point for me. Weird. If you can’t articulate why that changes my point then dawg, you might just have not understood what I was saying.
“Most countries…” okay? Iran being friendly with Russia is not at all the same as them being “obviously partners” as the user I was replying to claimed.
The “most countries don’t sell weapons unless friendly” claim is actually incredibly historically illiterate too, and tells me you don’t know what you’re talking about at the most basic level.
The US sold weapons to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. France sold to Saddam while officially neutral. China sells to Pakistan and India simultaneously.
Arms sales are dictated by profit, sanctions evasion, and strategic opportunism. Not friendship. The entire history of the Cold War is states arming enemies’ enemies for leverage, not because they liked them.
Just 🤦♂️
northrupthebandgeek@reddit
I didn't say you weren't.
Iran was invited to join the CSTO, is currently a member of BRICS, assisted Russia in Syria, and is currently selling weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine. But sure, pretend it's all just about the money and not about foreign relations.
That's straight up false. The US only sold Iran dual-use technology, and even Iraq didn't get American military hardware, but rather non-American hardware the US had on hand.
The closest nugget of truth there is the Iran-Contra Affair, with the US authorizing Israel to sell TOWs to a ”moderate” Iranian faction with the specific goal of that faction replacing the Ayatollah and ending the war in Iraq's favor. To construe that as “The US sold weapons to Iran” is a gross oversimplification at best.
France wasn't neutral in the Iran-Iraq War; it very clearly favored Iraq.
China selling to India is news to me. If any sales are happening at all, they're tiny in comparison to the sales to Pakistan.
Nobody said anything about “liking” anyone. A partnership driven by a shared enemy is still a partnership.
Right back at you.
SirGaylordSteambath@reddit
The CSTO invite means nothing, Iran declined. BRICS includes India and Brazil, nobody calls them Russian partners. Syria coordination was limited and they had competing proxy interests there, Iranian and Russian-backed factions were not always aligned.
On Iran-Contra: yes that’s the more precise example, and it actually proves the point better. The US covertly armed a country it was publicly at war with diplomatically, purely for leverage. That’s the definition of arms sales having nothing to do with partnership.
France favoring Iraq doesn’t change anything. The point was that arms sales happen outside of alliance structures, which is still true.
China has sold defense equipment to India. It’s asymmetric compared to Pakistan but it’s not zero. “A partnership driven by a shared enemy is still a partnership.” By that logic the US and China were partners in the 80s when they aligned against the Soviet Union. Nobody calls it that.
Iran has customers and it has threats. it has no partners.
northrupthebandgeek@reddit
The war in Iran is related to Ukraine in the sense that an Iranian drone design is one of the major things killing Ukrainians in Ukraine.
BendicantMias@reddit
Russia makes those drones itself now. It doesn't rely on Iran.
CurbYourThusiasm@reddit
lol, lmao even
Airowird@reddit
Zelensky knows that "aggressor is always wrong" won't help Ukraine fighting Russia.
He also seems more focused on gathering goodwill from the Gulf states than the US, who seem reluctant to provide the support they need. Those states, while allies of the US, are more collateral than aggressor in the war, and the missile & drone threat is very similar in both regions. It makes sense to try and get some oil money to fund your own nation's defense, even when you can't trust the orange-brown elephant in the room.
Apprehensive_Emu9240@reddit
Iran claims most western states are co-belligerent, not because they are directly involved in the war, but because they aid the US/Israeli military one way or another. Iran and Russia hold the same relationship in that they have been aiding each other as well, without directly sending in troops.
We can discuss the semantics of 'alliance' all we want, their deep ties are undeniable, and as of late the Arab states are being aided by Ukraine in upping their war capabilities.
hellopan123@reddit
That’s true but something has to explain why Russia has been moving so slowly for the last 4 years
finalattack123@reddit
That’s not uncommon for news reports. I wouldn’t even call it dishonest.
-WhiteSkyline-@reddit
Sure, Russia could have lost 35,351 soldiers with a 29% increase in casualties, while Ukraines on the offensive with a recent body exchange of (UA)1,000:43(RU) (I’ll have to double check that for a citation) - body exchanges as a statistical comparison have long lost any value in gauging either sides performance
Not trying to downplay Ukraines efforts, but to simply take Russia or Ukraines word on any statistics, and to then believe it wholeheartedly is moronic.
Yes, Russia is losing manpower, but it’s nowhere near the predicted 2 million killed and wounded.
Having said all of that, I am intrigued by the slow shift in opinions in this subreddit, although arguably the biggest telltale would be r/worldnews acknowledging any of the above.
New topic / point:
What I’m most interested in (both sides) is recent innovations around anti drone tech.
I haven’t been following Ukraines telegram channels (mainly because they don’t seem to get published frequently), but Russia at least has developed a few laser fielded systems and IR tracking LMG platforms for airfields and petro facilities.
I do wonder what Ukraine fields (besides Iglas and patriots - those being the most common).
Beat_Saber_Music@reddit
For note, body exchsnges are skewed by the fact Ukraine has until recently been losing ground, so therefore there will be more Ukrainian bodies in Russisn hands because Ukraine isn't really going to recover bodies from Rusdian held positions
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
Ukraine has been on offensive for 3 months. Still body exchange are loopsided. Let's leave that aside. After Ukraine's offensive in 2022, No body exchange has ever happened where Ukraine gave even 5% of bodies they claim to have killed. Are you telling me that even during 2022 when Russia retreated from, Kherson, Kyiv.... they recovered all their KIAs.... because that' doesn't make sense... Or perhaps.... Ukraine lies.
Beat_Saber_Music@reddit
It's difficult to get tons of bodies for an exchange when you're forced to retreat. Also the Kyiv region saw the Russians retreat rather than being encricled or destroyed by Ukrainians, so of course the Russians fleeing Kyiv aren't gonna be in the list of bodies exchanged.
There's plenty of Ukrainian battle footage, especially on Telegram channels such as by Magyar's birds of Magyar. The amount of Russian deaths is staggering
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
Let me dumb it down....as per your logic: Russia advance> recover dead ukr bodies + recover their bodies = loopsided body ratio
Same way,
Ukraine advance (now and in 22) > recover dead Russian and Ukr bodies.... Yet they no have dead body of Russia like Russia give Ukranian dead. Why?
simplexrofl@reddit
It's probably a difference in policy. I doubt Ukraine goes out of its way to collect the dead given its well known manpower issues. Moving bodies takes a lot of effort and logistics. Ukraine isn't exactly financially sound either, and more recovered bodies yields more payouts. In that same vein, Russia is incentivized to return as many dead Ukrainians as they can.
That's just my guess, though. In any case, nobody sane believes that body exchanges accurately reflect casualties. Russia isn't killing 50 Ukrainians for every Russian.
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
But they had alot of support in 2022 where they had opportunity to grab russian bodies. Still not many.
There are people who believe 50:1 Ratio of Ukraine killing Russians and 99% interception rates of drones.
simplexrofl@reddit
Do you have any articles to support that? All I can find is very small numbers of bodies being transacted. This is an article about a 1:1 swap of 50 bodies, and this is about 2:1 Ukrainians to Russians, but fewer than 200 total.
Here's a WaPo article that talks about the recovery of bodies in 2022. It mentions booby traps, too. It also implies the guy's motivation for collecting Russian bodies is the repatriation of Ukrainian bodies, but we know Russia has no problem with exchanging bodies at a 50:1 ratio.
Given then, that the recovery of Russian bodies is both a dangerous and difficult process, Ukraine's manpower crisis, and the lack of an incentive for Ukraine to actually collect these bodies, why would they?
And? They're equally stupid.
gregorydgraham@reddit
2022 was 4 years ago
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
Yes and? Ukraine had 4 years to return bodies of 10s of thousands killed in that offensive and they have failed to do so. Why?
gregorydgraham@reddit
Ukraine hasn’t had a successful large offensive for 4 years, so all of their kills have been in territory taken by Russia.
Plus 70% of casualties in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine are done by drones within the grey zone, where Ukraine cannot retrieve bodies.
This implies that Ukraine has few Russian bodies to return.
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
Ukraine did successful counteroffensive in 22 correct. They still never returned the bodies from the massive 22 counteroffensive in same number as Russia does right now for Ukraine. How can that be?
gregorydgraham@reddit
That was 4 years ago. Please try to keep up
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
And yet, even after that offensive, Ukraine never provided bodies in the same scale as Russia does. Which pretty much proves that that the cope that Russia is advancing and hence can recover bodies is a lie and the bodies show ground reality of casualties unlike what Ukr military puts out and it's blind followers believe.
Beat_Saber_Music@reddit
Actually Ukraine atm is advancing with a limited clunteroffensive between the Dnipro river and Pokrovske/Dobropiliya (Pokrovsk is a bigger city that is mostly held by Russia now, Pokrovske is a smaller settlememt west of Pokrovsk irrc). Ukraine in February or March gained more land than Russia conquered overall, especoally when Russia's access to Starlink was killed
gregorydgraham@reddit
Awkshually… They’ve only retaken 400sqkm in a rural area, and Russia has retreated a lot.
AND that doesn’t affect my comment at all. Ukraine is killing soldiers far beyond where they can retrieve bodies from.
Beat_Saber_Music@reddit
What you're leaving unaccounted for is that rural land they've recaptured is quite strategic. Whether keeping Russian artillery and drones at distance from Zaporozhia city on the Dnieper unable to keep bombing it as they've been doign in Kherson (Russians holding the opposite bank of the Dnieper from the city), or recapturing lost fortifications or clearing out positions in front of the big defensive lines.
It is easier to defend a defensive line if to reach it the Russians have to traverse 20km rather than 2 km of distance, leaving them much more exposed to drones amd artillery.
Even more, there is a psychological aspect hitigng the Russians. What took the Russians tens of thousands of lives and multiple months to capture, was retaken by the Ukrainians in weeks. Russians are forced to expend once again months of time and tens of thousands of soldiers and who know how many of their dwindling supply of cold war era vehocles to take land they lost in weeks.
Rural land can be much more important than you realize.
King_Kvnt@reddit
In spite of Russia's numerous blunders, the most successful front for Ukraine remains the propaganda front.
I take all of these claims with a pinch of salt.
Thatsidechara_ter@reddit
The claim is backed by video evidence for each kill. There could be some double counting, but that probably means it's actually under-counting Russian losses
Large_Awareness_9416@reddit
Lmao. No, that's not visually confirmed losses. That's just the number Ukranian MOD or adjacent structures give. When you ask them about the source their only answer is "trust me, bro."
Don't believe me? Try searching for a source of those claims.
All visually confirmed(or at least higly suspected) losses can be seen on Mediazone for Russia and UAlosses for Ukraine. And they are approximately 1 to 1.
fuckshitballscunt@reddit
From what I can see mediazone only includes losses confirmed through Russian media reports, obituaries etc. It does not include all visually confirmed losses.
I found this quote on the Wikipedia article particularly interesting
Large_Awareness_9416@reddit
Yeah, because that's how you confirm losses. If an artillery shell fall on a position, you don't go there and start counting the dead. The whole myth of "visually confirmed losses" is nonsense. There is literally zero evidence of anyone using this method beyond "trust me, bro."
Thatsidechara_ter@reddit
RoostasTowel@reddit
But you did claim they is video evidence of these thousands of kills.
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
How would that account for people who are not given an obituary by there family or have no inheritance proceedings initiated?
b0_ogie@reddit
For this purpose, a method of checking cemeteries is carried out. You need to go to 3-4 different cemeteries near settlements of different sizes and rewrite 1000-2000 surnames and check their availability in the database. Then use the method of proportions to find the total losses. For a sample of 1,000 people, for a population of 200k, this will give about a 3% margin of error.
In general, 55% of soldiers buried in cemeteries in Ukraine now have an entry in the ualosses database. Total 180k/0.55= 327k dead +-3%.
The mediazona little more interesting. As of February, it was 165k dead. Of those buried, 75% of those buried had an entry in the database. Total 165k/0.75=220k dead +-3%
And it is very interesting that a month ago mediazona reported that they had gained access to the state database of citizens' health thanks to hackers.
Thanks to this, they were able to confirm all the dead as of the beginning of 2026 and added another 40k people to the obituary database. So now there are 210k records in their database that cover almost 100% of military losses at the beginning of 2026.
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
Ive seen from other people analysing the data the data leak lasted until February 2025 so instead of as you suggest being minimum 210k by early 2026 its a minimum of 210k in early 2025 so a year of full casualty reports is missing
b0_ogie@reddit
Find the March article in the archive. This is not an inheritance registry or an assessment based on an inheritance registry. Last month, they wrote that they had received data from the registry of the state of citizens (either medical or legal) and increased the death toll by 40k at once.
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
Yeah I see it
So media zone sets out the minimum death toll due to not being able to fully account for everything?
b0_ogie@reddit
In any case, these media zones cover almost all the victims. Before the data was entered from the registers, it was about 75%, now it is probably closer to 95%+. Overall, a good job - the financing of the BBC and MI5 project did not go to waste.
But the ualosses project is probably more of a volunteer project and its reach is much lower. For some reason, no one is interested in the losses of Ukraine in this war.
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
95% of the reported deaths or all deaths
Of Russian citizens ofc non citizens won’t be counted in Russian obituaries
b0_ogie@reddit
>Of Russian citizens ofc non citizens won’t be counted in Russian obituaries
Obituaries for them are also counted. There are 562 more killed mercenaries who fought in Russia. 1,083 mercenaries who fought for Ukraine.
The DPR and LPR published lists of dead soldiers in the period from February to September 2022, and after September they joined the Russian Federation and their soldiers received Russian citizenship, after that all the losses are in the database of the mediazone.
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
Mediazone says they dont include the casualties for Donetsk or Luhansk unless they where volunteers from Russia or sent to the units if mobilised in Russia (which they don’t count the Donetsk or luhasnk to be apart of Russia) says so at the bottom of the page
Mediazone also say there methodology doesn’t take into account foreign nationals
Could you answer the other questions please or
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
Send it to me
Professional-Syrup-0@reddit
Don’t need to visually confirm a loss when it’s literally officially declared, announced and counted by the side taking the loss.
Or why would you need to visually confirm something like that? To see the loss actually happened? Because the big worry here is that Russia is making up losses it didn’t have?
Pick_Scotland1@reddit
Because all losses won’t be officially declared like would they just officially declare someone dead who is listed as MIA?
MarderFucher@reddit
Every day I log on to Magyar Bird's account and watch in glee the dozens of drone footage.
The actual number is of course anyone's guess, but it is certain it is very, very high.
RoostasTowel@reddit
They posted 35,000 videos of confirmed kills?
MarderFucher@reddit
Good thing we have all the rashsists on A_T to keep up the pro-Z front, good work komrade! I hope the rubels are worth it.
Quick-Exit-5601@reddit
Aljazeera has no business glazing Ukrainians. So I'd say it's somewhat believable
KronusTempus@reddit
Al Jazeera is heavily funded by the Qatari government. Qatar recently got absolutely smashed by Iran, a Russian ally. Qatar signed an air defense deal with Ukraine about a week ago.
Do you see it now?
type_E@reddit
That just means blowback unto Russia, thanks Iran
KronusTempus@reddit
I don’t think Putin will lose too much sleep over some bad press from Qatar…
gregorydgraham@reddit
https://youtu.be/8zMhFboiFwk?si=9dGz8iIigM8dl1Mc
pm_me_your_pay_slips@reddit
It is notable that this has been published by aljazeera
SendCatsNoDogs@reddit
Qatar just signed a 10-year defense deal with Ukraine. I would assume that also means the state paper starts publishing with a Ukraine bias.
onespiker@reddit
Mabey a bit that but there are also things like Russia has lost something the depended on quite a lot. Starlink, them losing that connection has made it very hard for them to attack back the last month.
Baoooba@reddit
But even the article says the numbers are "according to Ukraine’s armed forces"
pm_me_your_pay_slips@reddit
But the headline doesn’t, and that matters. Especially for a medium that is not western-aligned.
Professional-Syrup-0@reddit
Is your argument really that the headline is all that matters and not the actual contents of the article?
Originally I thought that’s meant as sarcasm, but then you followed it up with the misleading claim that Qatar is allegedly not Western-aligned.
Qatar has been Western aligned for by now over a decade, along with a bunch of other Arab and gulf states.
That’s also why OPEC has done absolutely nothing about Israel violating Palestine for these past years.
In the past such open western backed Israeli aggression was responded to with oil embargoes as it happened in the 70s, but during the last two decades the US managed to align large parts of OPEC with the West.
It’s why the U.S. is by now even selling nuclear tech to Arab states like Saudi Arabia, which would have been unthinkable a mere 20 years ago.
It’s why even the EU has been building “strategic cooperations” with Gulf states that otherwise absolutely do not fit our high demands on “democracy and human rights”.
With them we look away with their religious fundamentalism, even tho it were Sunni terrorists with Saudi passports that flew planes into towers.
Instead we attack and bomb Iran for their religious fundamentalism of not just doing whatever the US dictates to them.
Thatsidechara_ter@reddit
Aren't those only confirmed kills with video evidence?
chillichampion@reddit
Replying to weizikeng...confirmed by who?
FRIENDLY_FBI_AGENT_@reddit
Nope
Valokoura@reddit
I agrer. New vome slowly because both sides want to protect their innovations.
What I've heard that Russia is using magnetic bombs that are just distributed all around enemy side.
It is size of a brick or bit smaller and detonates when metallic stuff like your body plate, gun etc comes to close proximity.
Hard to disable. Even harder without giving away your location!
EtherealPheonix@reddit
Using body exchanges as a stand in for casualties is extremely disingenuous, it reflects the fact that Russia is advancing not the cost in blood to do so.
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