Foreign and Russian media spread fakes about Ukraine's losses but report different data

Ukrainian journalist Oleksandr Kovalenko noticed that since Sunday afternoon, reports of Ukrainian military fatalities have been pouring into the Russian information space in waves. At the same time, none of these reports were consistent in terms of the numbers reported. He shared his findings and conclusions in his blog. 

On the Judging Freedom YouTube channel, Trump-supporting Colonel Douglas McGregor said that during a meeting with Lloyd Austin, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly told him about the real losses of the Ukrainian army. And it is 257,000 people. Meanwhile, Ukraine's population has shrunk to 18 million people.

“I think not everyone remembers or knows who McGregor is, so let me remind you that this “colonel” in 2014 supported the occupation of Crimea by Russia, of which he spoke to RT. On February 27, 2022, it was he who declared that the Ukrainian army was done and that Russia’s victory was obvious,” the journalist writes. 

In addition to McGregor, the Turkish media Hurseda cited leaked information from Israeli intelligence that the AFU has 157,000 dead, 234,000 wounded, and thousands more dead foreigners from the US, Poland, Lithuania, etc. At the same time, according to this media outlet, Russia's losses amounted to only 18,480 people. 

“It remains to wonder why Russia, with such insignificant losses and such devastating death toll among the Ukrainian troops decided to flee from Chernihiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions and part of Kherson regions, announcing additional mobilization to call up 300,000 new soldiers?” Kovalenko emphasizes in his article. 

So, in just a day, two sources issued contradictory data on Ukraine's "colossal" losses, which was immediately picked up by Russian propagandists. However, due to Russia's typical lack of coordination, they began to spread radically different figures. 

“But you know what’s the funniest thing? Douglas McGregor reported the Ukrainian army death toll at 257 000, while the Turkish dumpster Hurseda wrote 157,000. It seems that either McGregor or Hurseda’s handlers made a mistake in one digit when transferring the guidebook, or it was one of the actors involved in the act who allowed this blunder while sharing the narrative,” the journalist noted.

Kovalenko believes that when Russian propagandists launch such fakes, they are trying to divert public attention from their own failures and often use manipulative data that looks like their own, real figures. For example, "It wasn't our aircraft that was shot down, it was a Ukrainian plane." "It was not our tank column that was burned, but a Ukrainian one." "It wasn't our battalion tactical group that was destroyed in Makiivka, it was a Ukrainian one..."

This time, it was a response to the publications of reputable Western media and statements by a number of experts that the losses of the Russian army in Ukraine range from 180,000 to 200,000 people. 

• Recently, Oleksandr Kovalenko noted that Russia's losses could be more than 320,000, including the dead, wounded, and prisoners of war.