A tabloid site in Russia published the number or Russian soldiers both killed or injured in their war on Ukraine and then deleted them from the story shortly thereafter.
Here’s a screenshot of the article, which shows nearly 10,000 Russian soldiers killed since their invasion began:
Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, says that according to Russian ministry of defense numbers, 9,861 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine and 16,153 were injured. The last official Russian KIA figure, on March 2, was 498. Fascinating that someone posted the leaked number. pic.twitter.com/LHrBWIQ49z
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) March 21, 2022
The Daily Beast saw this and reported on it as well:
An article published on a Russian tabloid website claimed that nearly 10,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a new invasion of the country in February. The article, published briefly on Komsomolskaya Pravda, claimed that Russia’s Ministry of Defense disputed Ukrainian military estimates that almost 15,000 Russian troops had died as a result of the military operation and instead estimated 9,861 killed and 16,153 were wounded—far larger than the 498 dead Russia has admitted to thus far. Shortly after the article was published, it was removed without explanation and republished with the casualty figures missing.
That’s a lot of soldiers killed in less than a month of fighting and it’s not far from the number that Ukraine is claiming.
Clearly the Ukrainians have put up far more of a fight than what Putin had planned. So much so that now some are claiming that Russia cannot win this war, but will be stuck in a stalemate with Ukraine:
NATO official sees Russia war entering a stalemate: "Neither side here can win" https://t.co/ZXM1zpPmDc
— CNBC (@CNBC) March 21, 2022