Why Is the Pentagon Now Pushing the False Narrative About Russian Casualties? Nima and I Discuss the War in Palestine and Lebanon

Here is the US propaganda courtesy of the NY Times reporter, Eric Schmitt: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/us/politics/russia-casualties-ukraine-war.html

“September was the bloodiest month of the war for Russian forces in Ukraine, U.S. officials said, with the costly offensive in the east bringing the number of Russia’s dead and wounded to more than 600,000 troops since the war started.

“U.S. officials attribute the high number of Russian casualties to what they describe as a grinding war of attrition, with each side trying to exhaust the other by inflicting maximum losses, hoping to break the enemy’s capacity and will to continue. Russian troops have made steady but incremental gains in recent months in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, U.S. officials said. . . .

“’It’s kind of the Russian way of war in that they continue to throw mass into the problem,’ a senior U.S. military official said this week, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments, in announcing the Pentagon’s latest Russian casualty estimate. ‘And I think we’ll continue to see high losses on the Ukrainian side.’

“According to U.S. assessments, Russian casualties in the war so far number as many as 615,000 — 115,000 Russians killed and 500,000 wounded. Ukrainian officials have zealously guarded their casualty figures, even from the Americans, but a U.S. official estimated that Ukraine had suffered a bit more than half of Russia’s casualties, or more than 57,500 killed and 250,000 wounded.”

This is complete, utter bullshit. So, why is the US military pushing this line of malarkey? A couple of reasons come to mind. First, the Biden Administration and the US military are desperately trying to make the case that Ukraine really is winning the war and that the West just needs to keep pouring in weapons and money. Alternatively, the US is trying to lay the foundation for halting continued funding of Ukraine by claiming that Russia has lost the war by virtue of suffering so many casualties. What is known is that the figures cited by unnamed US officials are fabrications.

How do we know? It is simple mathematics. At no point in the last two years of the battles in Ukraine has the Ukrainian side enjoyed an advantage in artillery, tanks or drones. With respect to artillery, not only is Russia producing more artillery shells then what the entire West is producing, it is firing as many as eight shells for each one Ukraine manages to crank off. Here is Newsweek’s spin on the matter from July:

“Russian and Ukrainian military forces are firing tens of thousands of ammunition shells daily, requiring increased production from Ukraine-backed NATO allies as a counteroffensive remains ongoing. . . .

“It was estimated earlier this year that Ukraine fires as many 155-millimeter artillery rounds in about five days as the U.S. produces in a month, but that is likely a low estimate according to Guy McCardle, managing editor of Special Operations Forces Report (SOFREP).

“’By most accounts, Russia is firing at least four times as many artillery shells as Ukraine,’ McCardle told Newsweek via email. ‘That’s significant. 20,000 rounds per day for Russia is a low estimate, as is 5,000 rounds per day for Ukraine.”

“Artillery is the biggest killer on both sides of the war, he added, projecting it causes about 80 percent of all casualties overall in this ongoing war. The high rates of artillery rounds being used seemingly without effort is because ‘they are effective.’”

With Russia consistently firing several times more artillery rounds at Ukrainian forces, it is a simple fact that Ukraine will suffer more casualties. And I have not even factored in Russia’s advantage with the use of drones and FAB bombs, which has intensified over the last six months.

The Ukrainian situation with respect to artillery is made even more dire by two factors. First, the Russians are destroying many times more of the Western-supplied artillery pieces. Second, Ukraine’s rate of fire causes it to burn through the barrels of the artillery pieces, and there are no ready replacements for them.

The Pentagon also is lying about Russia “making incremental gains” and using human-wave attacks. The truth of the matter is exactly the opposite — it is Ukraine that is suffering massive losses — an average of 2,000+ a day over the last three months. While Russia has adjusted its tactics, using smaller, mobile assault squads to hit Ukrainian positions all along the front, it is causing the Ukrainian lines to crumble.

Simplicius summarizes the recent Ukrainian setbacks:

“So now, we’ve had the usual incremental advances in the known areas: for instance toward Kurakhove, more areas north of Ugledar captured, around Selydove in the Pokrovsk direction—which town is being slowly enveloped in a cauldron.

“Then there was the total capture of Tsukuryne in the same direction.

“Consolidation and deep advances into Toretsk, which appears nearly 50% captured. As well as more small breakthroughs into Chasov Yar.

“New massive chunk of Toretsk captured. . . .

“A sudden gambit across the dry reservoir established a beachhead on Kamianske, opposite Russia’s positions south of Zaporozhye city. . . .

“The other most surprising was an advance toward long-contested Siversk near the Donetsk-Kharkov border. . . .

“The most significant though was an advance southward past recently-captured Sinkovka up in the north, near Kupyansk. Russian forces finally reached Petropavlovka again.

“There are many other small advances made in that region, including Vyshneve to the south (circled in yellow) and the whole area circled in red, which is turning everything between there and Sinkovka into a giant cauldron trapped against the Oskil River. . . .

“Russian Army Begins Breakthrough on Kursk Front: Powerful Assault on Lyubimovka and Attack on Zeleny Shlyakh to Cut Off Ukrainian Armed Forces Group

“Today our armored groups unexpectedly attacked and broke through the enemy’s defenses in the Kursk border area.

“About 30 units of Russian equipment are storming the village of Lyubimovka, wrote media officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Alex”. Russian troops managed to advance and are now consolidating, the fighting continues. . . .

“Ukrainian Army is gradually withdrawing to the town of Sudzha. Russian Army has entered Zelenyi Shlyakh and Novoivanovka and is approaching Nizhnii Klin from Obukhovka.”

If you compare the pictures on social media of Ukrainian cemeteries with those of Russia’s, the pictorial record shows staggering losses for Ukraine.