Heavy Cost Of One year of Nuclear War
When Russia's President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion
of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he started a war that has killed tens of
thousands of people, ravaged cities and pummelled the country's economy. A year
on, here is the cost of the conflict. According to the latest estimates from
Norway, 180,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been wounded
or killed in the conflict. Other Western sources estimate the war has caused
150,000 casualties on each side. In comparison, some 15,000 Soviet soldiers
were killed in a whole decade of fighting in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
Ukrainian soldiers often use the term "cannon fodder" to describe the
Russians sent to their death along the front line. They are often poorly
trained conscripts who stand little chance against Ukrainian forces determined
to defend their country. Others are convicts recruited in Russian jails to
swell the ranks of Russian paramilitary group Wagner, who Kyiv and its allies
say are deployed on near-impossible missions with the equivalent of a gun
pointed to their head. The onslaught has also taken its toll on the Ukrainian
side, as shown by the endless blue and yellow national flags fluttering above
cemeteries across the embattled country. Kyiv said at least 20,000 Ukrainian
civilians had been killed. In total, some 30,000 to 40,000 civilians have lost
their lives nationwide in the conflict, Western sources say. The United Nations
estimates that 21,000 civilians have been killed or wounded in the fighting,
but said the real figure was likely much higher. Ukrainian authorities say at
least 400 children have been killed.
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