Ukraine and Russia lost one million killed and wounded in the war - wsj

The number of killed and wounded Ukrainians and Russians in a full -scale war, which lasts for two and a half years, has reached about one million people. About it writes The Wall Street Journal with reference to sources. According to journalists, in total, the loss of the Ukrainian army is allegedly 480 thousand, of which - 80 thousand killed and 400 thousand wounded.

Russia, according to the data of the Western special services, has lost its full -scale invasion of Ukraine 600,000 soldiers: 200 thousand - dead and 400 thousand - wounded. WSJ notes that losses are creating problems for Russia, which throws poorly trained soldiers to promote in eastern Ukraine, and tries to withstand a recent Ukrainian invasion of Kursk region. At the same time, journalists point out that Ukraine will be difficult to cope with such losses because of four less population.

However, in the long run, the consequences will be destructive for both countries that had demographic problems before the war. Journalists also write that one of the motives of the war of Vladimir Putin is an increase in the population of Russia "through the absorption of Ukrainians".

The invasion of Russia and the capture of the Ukrainian territory over the last decade has led to the fact that, according to demographics, Ukraine has lost at least 10 million people who were occupied or have become refugees.

Putin has long declared overcoming a chronic demographic decline in Russia with its priority, and since then the Kremlin has launched a campaign of Russification of the occupied territories, including mass abductions of children and pressure on Ukrainians in order to obtain Russian citizenship. In the occupied Donbass, the sale of property and other transactions now require Russian citizenship.

"Demography is a priority for Putin, and he wants to use Ukraine and its people to consolidate the Slavic nucleus of Russia," said Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krasitev. He added that "for Ukraine the dilemma is existential: how many people can you lose in the war before you lose your future?" It is worth noting that only President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially voiced the loss of Ukraine in the war.

In February, during a press conference, the head of the state noted that 31,000 servicemen were killed in battles for the state. According to the UN, more than six million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022. According to unusual data of the Ukrainian government, the total population in the territory controlled in Kiev has decreased to 25-27 million.

The American publication writes that one of the key reasons why Zelensky refuses to mobilize a key cohort of men aged 18 to 25 years-usually the major part of any armed forces-is that, according to former Ukrainian government officials, most of These people do not yet have children. According to Ukrainian demographers, if conscripts of this age group die or become incapacitated, demographic prospects will be even more worse in the future. The average age of Ukrainian fighters is now 43 years.