I have counted 34,943 Russian combatant deaths over the past 289 days since I began tracking. This number will increase, as I have not finished error-checking, and we typically undercount during the first pass through the data.
Below is a chart showing deaths since February 1st, which is when I arbitrarily started this table. That date corresponds to day 158 of counting. The blue line represents the actual death totals, while the red line is a six-day rolling average.
You can see that this year, the average daily deaths rose from around 110 in mid-February to about 127 in mid-March, then to roughly 180 in mid-April. It dropped to about 140 in mid-May and is now around 90. The minimum occurred in the first week of June, and since then, we have seen a slight upward trend.
These 34,943 deaths are only the ones we can see. They are confirmed through visual evidence such as photographs and videos posted publicly, mostly by Ukrainian brigades sharing footage of their combat operations. These videos are primarily used to raise money for fundraisers and are not official casualty reports. This number reflects a strict minimum. It does not include the crews of destroyed vehicles, the missing, or those who die from wounds after the footage ends. It is a count of what is visible, not what is complete.
To understand what is being missed, consider this:
A shell hits ten men. One dies instantly. Two more die within half an hour. Three could be saved with timely medical care, but that rarely happens now. Helicopter evacuations are no longer possible, and there are few safe routes out. Of the remaining four, three are immobilized and could survive with basic first aid and transport within five hours. But even that is usually not possible. They die too. The last two are walking wounded. They must make their way back to safety on their own, often walking five to ten kilometers under threat from drones. If they are lucky, they might be picked up by a vehicle.
This account comes from a firsthand testimony shared publicly on the Telegram channel “Transormator” (t.me/Transormator_T…). It provides valuable insight into the high mortality rates among wounded Russian soldiers.
This is what Russian assault units face every day. Out of every ten men hit, eight die and only two survive. For every one survivor, two wounded men die. This two to one ratio matches what Russian military medics have reported.
It is important to acknowledge the limitations of this information. These death ratios come from publicly available accounts, including firsthand testimonies such as the Telegram report referenced above. While the numbers seem consistent with past reports and expert assessments, they are necessarily incomplete and subject to variability. Most information about casualties remains private, and Russian brigades do not publicly share casualty information. The videos posted by Ukrainian brigades are combat footage, not systematic data releases. This means the counts and ratios we use are estimates based on partial and unevenly distributed data.
Now apply that to the 34,943 deaths I have confirmed.
Those are the men who died where they were filmed. But for every man who makes it to a hospital, two more die unseen, in the “gray zone” — areas that are out of reach for rescue but not necessarily out of reach of cameras. Whether their deaths are recorded or shared depends on the mood and circumstances of the Ukrainians filming. That means the true number of deaths is not 34,943 but closer to 81,222 if you account for the wounded who later die. That is a 133 percent increase over the visible count.
If we extend this rate over a full year, based on the current daily average of 121 deaths, we project the following:
Minimum confirmed deaths over 365 days: approximately 44,165
Adjusted total accounting for wounded who later die: 44,165 multiplied by 2.33 equals approximately 102,902
So when we say 34,943 Russians have died, we are really saying that at least that many died on camera. The real number is far higher. Most of them die out of sight, slowly and alone, in places where rescue is impossible.
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I wrote 2 years ago about why I was worried about Molniya drones. They are long range and capable of very large warheads. For whatever reason they were oddly scarce for a while, but they have become very common items on the battlefield and exactly everything I feared.
They can destroy a house in a single hit. Even small concrete buildings. They can dive straight down into dugouts, fly along trenches and fly into bunkers. They are being used to target infantry now, too. Russia clearly has a lot of them and are using them to destroy things that used to require helicopters.
They cost around $1000 each, roughly 2x a base level drone or roughly the same price as a higher end fpv drone. But they can carry a 6-7kg bomb and can fly over 40km.
The United States government is built on the concept that Congressmen will have the swagger to take pride in their station. The government hinges on congress enforcing their will upon others. They are supposed to be arrogant sons of bitches who look down on others.
The moment you have a congress that is unwilling or incapable of being arrogant, condescending assholes and you instead have weak placating losers, the whole foundation of the government crumbles. The supreme arrogance of congress is what lets them reign in power of president.
Right now the US has the weakest congress in its history. A bunch of spineless losers who are incapable of even having independent thought. They are owned entirely by others, especially the republican party who bows to a president. Imagine, a CONGRESSMEN bowing to a PRESIDENT.
A few areas where I have been focusing on geoing strikes on Russians positions lately have been interesting in that only a very tiny number of Russians are defending. In one area in particular, the video showed a drone scan a series of trenches where only four Russians were spotted. Two killed and two forced to flee. I wonder what is behind those Russians, and whether it is similarly a skeleton crew on defense. Also, these Russians were quite far from Ukrainian positions, so they were not some extremely advanced forward position, they seem to me to be the second and/or third line of defense, which are typically more heavily manned.
When I see video like this, from an area very far from offensive actions, where Russia is purely defending, it makes me wonder how different the war would be if Ukraine had the capacity to attack this location. I feel like if Ukraine were to attack and capture it, many people online would say the area doesn't matter because it is only advancing 1km or blah blah. But advancing 1km is important, because it forces Russians to divert resources away from attacking to defending. Or you will advance a second k, or a third km until such a point that the Russians are forced to defend.
There is an area where Ukraine has been slowly advancing in this manner. Nobody is really talking about it, because it isn't sexy. It doesn't impact any large battles, it isn't a sign of things to come, or anything else. It is just Ukraine taking advantage of Russia failing to adequately defend positions.
Ukraine does not have an adequate air force, but it can create the effects of an air force using other methods and tools. For example, long-range drones can be deployed in a series of nested concentric circles to mine and harass supply roads, effectively cutting them off.
One layer of drones could strike targets 100 km out, the next at 80 km, then 60 km, 40 km, and finally, the remaining drones could dominate the last 20–30 km leading to the front.
With sufficient drone coverage density, the impact on enemy logistics can closely mirror that of a conventional air force—cutting off supplies and limiting troop movements.
Furthermore, the development of heavier strike drones, with payloads between 100 and 500 kg, can replicate the effects of traditional airstrikes. In conjunction with attack drones, this combination becomes a deadly one-two punch: attack drones locate and relay target positions, and heavier strike drones follow up with rapid and destructive precision.
Once the enemy's rear positions are degraded to this extent, the front becomes unsustainable. The opposing force will be forced to withdraw, regardless of intent.
Ukraine does not need large offensive pushes to defeat Russia. It needs extremely high-density drone coverage to deny Russian sustainment. Land can be taken back piece by piece, without committing to large and costly ground assaults.
All but the heavy strike drones can be done with the technology that Ukraine has available today, right now. The strike drones could be developed in short order. This is a realistic path to victory using the tools and resources available. And one which Europe could help using financing alone.
Europe could also provide longer range weapons for Ukraine’s existing aircraft, which is frankly a much more unrealistic path forward. Albeit possible. And Europe doesn’t really have the weapons available to give, so would require making them first.
After Trump put Fedex guys in charge of USPS, the democrats should issue an official warning that any aspect of USPS that might get “privatized” under trump will be immediately seized, without compensation, by the following administration and congress.
There should be an open air understanding that any aspect of the government privatized by Trump will be seized back without compensation. We will eminent domain your ass, and change any law (or court makeup) to make it legal.
The property of the people isn’t for sale. That’s the message.
The US saw Russia using nothing but golf carts and ladas in Ukraine and said fuck it, we're going on all in. We're cancelling all armor procurement. Battle golf carts are the future. Who needs firepower when you have bags of meat strapped to a go-cart?
Many Americans will die, and that is a sacrifice the Army is willing to make. Drive the golf cart full steam into a drone swarm. The guys in the back will have tons of ability to shoot back before they die, since there will be no walls or doors to get in the way.
All paths will be heavily mined, which is why we got rid of mraps. The mraps would just get disabled anyway, and then you'd be wishing you had a golf cart to ride. So, instead of wasting our time with armor, lets cut to the chase and deploy you on a golf cart from the start.