RT @peterbakernyt: "This is now a war of attrition favoring Russia, which has mobilized more men and arms than Ukraine and its Western back….

RT @StevenErlanger: An important analysis about the inaccuracy and p.r. surrounding casuality figures in the Ukraine-Russian war. by @AKurm….

RT @maxseddon: An illustration of the Russian concept of "negative growth," shown during a state TV piece about how great the railway inves….

RT @peterbakernyt: "Our catastrophe": Russia's humbling setback in Syria could increase the stakes for Putin's war in Ukraine and shrink th….

Ukraine and Western intelligence agencies classify their methodologies. This means they don't need to explain how they arrive at their numbers, which have dominated Western discourse of the war.

The 2nd difference in the estimates is transparency. The investigative journalistic projects I mentioned publish their methodology & their code. They explain their numbers. Their analysis of excess mortality is accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal, Demography.

The numbers they make public bolster their narrative of the war: They fight a weakening enemy. Victory is in sight. It is understandable that a nation fighting for survival & its allies skew numbers to raise morale. These figures, however, do little to help us understand the war.

Of course Western & Ukrainian officials who regularly release total loss figures know that they don't accurately represent the state of the war. They know that the lightly injured soldiers are not real losses. They also release only upper limit of their estimate ranges.

Mediazona, Meduza & BBC analyze obituaries, cemeteries, disability payments & notary databases to estimate deaths, and then serious injuries to come up with total IRREPLACEABLE losses. These men will never see battle again.

Ukraine & Pentagon release TOTAL losses that include all injuries. This includes lightly injured soldiers who often recover & return to fight. UK Defense Ministry also appears to count all injuries (they didn't respond to 3 requests for comment).

That difference has major consequences. A Russian Army that lost 700,000 men is a different army from the one that lost 400,000. And it will have different incentives to negotiate a ceasefire. So which estimate is closer to truth? What do they count & how?.

How many soldiers did Russia lose in the war?.Ukrainian & Western intelligence agencies claim Russia suffered 600,000 to 700,000 casualties by Oct. Independent journalists from Mediazona, BBC Russian Service & Meduza estimate 400,000 to 500,000 by Oct.

RT @KatjaBody: For two months, we've been interviewing Russian civilians in the Kursk region, reviewing videos posted by Ukrainian and Russ….

“Every car that approached that place was shot at”.

Dear @DB_Bahn, if you’re not going to run a train service, can you at least have the decency to announce the cancellation? Is there a limit on how dysfunctional your service can be?.

RT @PjotrSauer: Sergey Mikhailov, the founder of the independent Siberian newspaper Altay, was sentenced to 8 years in prison today for all….

Two sources in Caracas confirmed that the government there deported Colombian soldiers, because they were declared mercenaries. Maduro’s fear of a coup could’ve played as much role in this as desire to help Putin.

RT @frrodriguezc: If someone tells you that socialism ruined Venezuela, show them this graph. It illustrates how under Chávez/Maduro the pr….

They Traveled Home After Defending Ukraine, and Ended Up in a Russian Prison.

RT @victoramaya: Han pasado 24 días desde que el CNE anunció resultados y aún:.-No muestra resultados desagregados. -No explica por qué no….