May be astonishingly high ...

Ukrainian sources may not be far off in their estimates if the Russians themselves are talking about 10,000 dead so far. Morgues in Belarus, where many are taken (presumably so they don't show up in Moscow with grieving mothers), are straining.

Many Russians may be dying for lack of care, like Civil War soldiers in the US 160 years ago.

Numbers could even be north of 17K. The usual 3-1 wounded to KIA means Russian forces are literally decimated (1/10). Then there are those who deserted and surrendered.

Max Boot contends the Ukrainians are actually winning

They can increasingly move their new shiny NATO-provided and homegrown equipment (tanks, S300 systems, stingers, javelins, and so on) around without much fear of Russian aerial assault.

The Institute for the Study of War has likewise concluded that "Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war."

https://www.understandingwar.o...ine-conflict-updates

It's hard to rejoice (in effect) at the deaths and wounds of so many young men especially since it sounds like they were forcibly conscripted. I guess in the nature of war, though, these pitiful pawns are the price of (hopefully) preserving the independence of Ukraine and perhaps the expansion of Putin's new empire to other countries if Ukraine falls.

(We can all only hope that Putin's desperation and reaction to losing face, doesn't lead to use of nuclear weaponry that over-rides old-fashioned war and its methods. It seems that fear is almost universal which is a good thing.)

It's all a great tragedy, though.

Only part of the Russian force is conscripted. The core of the attacking force is a professional military.

These forces, whether conscripted or professional are taking part in a war where indiscriminate shelling of cities is not an accident, but a deliberate act of terror to demonstrate Russian strength. Given that, I do rejoice in the death of Russian soldiers. Not in the particular ... as in "I want to watch Pavel suffer and burn," but certainly in the abstract, as a means of bringing home to the vast majority of Russians the costs of what they are doing. And it is the vast majority of Russians.

I came out of a seminar earlier today that featured on-campus scholars (two of whom are Russian), and a Ukrainian political scientist joining in from Kyiv. There was no doubt among all the participants, including the Russians, that this is a brutal imperial war of aggression and that the Russian people are truly complicit. They're not innocent bystanders. They buy into the myth of Great Russia and the "fascist" Ukrainians who want murder and drive out Russians.

My Ukrainian friend at the seminar rejected calling this "Putin's War" as some have done. He emphasized that this is a war of the Russian state and Russian people against Ukraine, and calling it anything less than that ... an incursion or clean "special operation," or even an "invasion," which connotes something speedy, is wrong and feeds the Russian state's narrative. They're turning Ukrainian cities into rubble with people in the buildings because they cannot accept a free and sovereign Ukrainian state. And they're doing this with the blessing of the Russia Orthodox Church. Church and state, hand in glove (his term). The Russia people are at war with Ukraine.

What can you do? You hope for as many violent deaths of Russian soldiers as possible and you support putting billions of dollars of sophisticated weapons directly into the hands of Ukrainian defenders so they can send thousands more young Russians into the morgues of Belarus.

If someone's "plan" is to hope that Putin has a change of heart and suddenly decides that Ukraine is a distinct entity worthy of freedom, or to pray for a coup, then they need a brain transplant.

Even better that Putin is deposed. This is an unprecedented opportunity to get rid of him. I'm sure he has many enemies.

It happened to Khrushchev and Gorbachev. It can happen to him.