Ukraine's Podolyak clarifies why real number of Russian losses much higher

The true personnel losses of the Russian army exceed 100,000.

This observation was reported by RBC-Ukraine referencing Mykhailo Podolyak, the Adviser who spoke on the Ukrainian TV 24 channel.

Podolyak explained why the losses of the Russian military are actually higher than the daily figures recorded by Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces. Stating that in the defense ministry, losses are generally considered separately for each type of troop.

“For example, Russians consider losses of non-contractual persons separately - convicts, which are tied to the private paramilitary group “Wagner” and which are not considered losses of the defense ministry of the aggressor country. In addition, the losses of the Rosgvardia [Russia’s internal armed troops], which is engaged in punitive operations in the occupied territories of Ukraine, are considered separately. That is why the real number of liquidated invaders is greater”, says the advisor.

According to him, the true number of killed occupiers can range from anywhere between 100 to 120,000.

“And this does not take into account the sanitary losses [troops injured in battle or due to illness], which are quite large. That is why the mobilization in the aggressor country is still continuing. They say that there is no mobilization, but it is taking place today at the level of appeal. Russians gather people and send them to the front, because 90-92% of artillery losses are people who do not reach the battles. Therefore they are trying to compensate for these losses in Russia with programs of endless mobilization”, Podolyak emphasized.

Russia is glad that convicts are going to war instead of the usual mobilized forces, but the mobilization, as Podolyak believes, will continue until the transformation of the political system takes place in Russia. On the other hand, as he noted, convicts are not a category of people who fight in Ukraine on any ideological basis.

“They have a simple task - to destroy as many Ukrainians as possible and destroy our state. And this is ideal for convicts, because they can commit terrible crimes for which they will not be punished in the aggressor country. But here the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces await them”, he stressed.