Illustrative image showing a 2S5 Giatsint-S howitzer firing. Source: the Russian Ministry of Defense.
According to information recently published by a leading research agency, the conflict in Ukraine has one of the lowest numbers of civilian casualty ratios in the history of wars.
Written by Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
According to Western media, the conflict in Ukraine is marked by indiscriminate violence on the part of the Russian forces against Ukrainian citizens, killing both military and non-military. Concrete data, however, point to an entirely different conclusion. A recent survey showed that since February the Ukrainian conflict has been one of the episodes with the lowest civilian casualty ratios in the history of wars. This important data demonstrates how the Russian forces have really been conducting their special operation.
The data were published on December 21 by the Statista agency. Analyzing information provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the institute showed that until December 18, 6,826 unarmed people had died in Ukraine – 428 of them children. In addition, 10,769 civilians reported injuries – 790 of them children. The agency refrained from analyzing data referring to military casualties, considering it impossible to discern coherent information at this time of intense combat and strong conflict of narratives.
It is important to point out that the reported data refer to what the West commonly calls the “Ukraine war”, which allegedly started on February 24, 2022. This time delimitation is absolutely incorrect, since there had been a civil war going on in Ukraine since 2014, February 2022 being just the date of the Russian intervention in the conflict, not the “beginning” of a new war. Previously, tens of thousands of people had already died in the intense Ukrainian bombings in Donbass, and these data were not analyzed in the current research.
Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had publicly commented that 100,000 Ukrainians had died in the conflict so far. The figures have been disputed by some experts, who believe that more Ukrainians – mainly military personnel – were killed. However, taking von der Leyen’s information as true, and adding it to the OHCHR data, it is possible to say that currently the proportion of civilians killed in the conflict is 6.8%, which is a surprisingly low number.
Apparently, out of every 100 Ukrainians killed during Russian operation, only 6-7 are civilians. Even with the intense Russian attacks of heavy artillery against the Ukrainian infrastructure, the number of civilian casualties does not increase, which demonstrates that in this conflict there is a strong concern on the part of the Russians not to generate unnecessary victims. The affected targets are always either military or unoccupied civilian facilities as in the case of energy infrastructure with no indiscriminate bombing of entire cities, as Kiev does in Donbass.
In fact, Kiev’s tactic of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets is deeply related to Western military praxis, which is marked precisely by the bombing of regions occupied by the unarmed population, generating scenarios similar to those of a deliberate massacre. Comparing data from Russian intervention in Ukraine with statistics from other conflicts, it is possible to clearly see the difference between Moscow’s military praxis and that of the West. For example, the civilian casualty ratio in Korea was 74%, in Vietnam 46%, in Yugoslavia 56%.As well as Ukraine, other Western allies also kill civilians at shocking rates – such as, for example, Israel, whose Palestinian civilian casualty ratio between 2000 and 2007 was 69%.
The fact that Russia is achieving a military victory in Ukraine without having to sacrifice large numbers of noncombatant lives shows that it is indeed possible to conduct high-intensity operations while protecting the unarmed population. This brings important reflections on why NATO and its allies have always left a shocking number of non-military casualties in their actions around the world. Commonly, Western propaganda calls these casualties “collateral damage”, which does not seem to make sense. Russia is fighting one of the highest intensity conflicts of recent times and promoting a military campaign with extensive use of heavy weapons – and yet it has much less collateral damage than the West has in conflicts of much lower intensity.
The only possible conclusion is that, in addition to issues concerning strategy and tactics, Moscow seems genuinely concerned about managing the operation in the humanitarian way. Ideally, Russia’s enemies should think the same way and stop bombing demilitarized areas in Donbass. But instead, Ukrainian forces seem more and more involved in the use of terrorist tactics and indiscriminate killing.
Too nice for their own good?
NO. Just because Russia is not killing everything that moves that does not mean the Russians are weak. If you want to see how delusional the Americans are watch this show by the Hoover Institute. (I’m assuming the is a group of door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen) Filmed 7 months ago you can see that they have very little grasp of reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ09BqDkfWI
They remind me of when US invaded Iraq the second time. Those fighting back and not being rice converts were labelled “anti-Iraqi forces.”
You may have a point, but, if your extended family members were victims on either or even both sides of the conflict I would hope that you would favor the military that seeks to minimise all civilian casualties.
The US has always used civilians as disposable pawns and this is why NATO is hated by the majority of the world.
That is so true. That is also the reason I stand with Russia, unshaken on principle.
It would be terrible to kill the ethnic Russians in Ukraine.
Though Putin maybe made a mistake when waiting all those years after the Minsk Accords to attack. Perhaps he should have hit Ukes when they were weak.
I just hope the Ukrainian soldiers really are being sent to the meat grinder and die out quick.
I’d love to see Zelinsky’s real approval ratings in Ukraine. It was 28 percent before the war started. They weren’t happy cause he didn’t bring peace and didn’t help the economy.
Gee I wonder why they don’t give a poll of what the Ukes think of him.
By now the Ukronazis will fake any statistics which would reflect the reality in Ukr. The SBU tortured and killed any kind of protestants against the Clown. Now it’s like either you are a Russophobic Nazi OR you are traitor. There is no other options according tho the Kiev Nazi junta.
I am waiting for Ukraine to strike their christmas tree in the capital then blame russia
If the Russians had done it in the very special American way, that war would have been over some months ago. There are only military victories and political successes. No awards for the most humane war.
An insightful post – even President Putin seems to have come around to Paul Craig Roberts’ view that treading softly in Ukraine has been a mistake, or perhaps more accurately that the Russian intervention in Ukraine should have happened years ago.
Nonetheless, I’d suspect that history will favourably judge the Russian strategy of minimising civilian casualties – as should all those Ukrainian civilians who weren’t rendered casualties of the conflict.
Look at Iraq, the US, UK bombed the cr@p out of it, claimed victory. But did they really win if you look at Iraq now. The reason Russia didn’t do that style 1 the civilians are pro Russian, 2 what they take will remain Russian. So bombing haphazardly just creates hatred
What about Chechnya? Did they bomb the frig out of civilians there or try to limit casualties?
I’m no expert, but the russkies seem to have won the populace in that area. Though Ukraine and Chechnya are two different places.
Of course the ukrops are targeting civilians, it’s what there overlords advise and do best. NATO, UK, USA. One just has to look at their histories
One of the most important articles ever to appear on Southfront even though some may not fully appreciate the profundity of what this symbolizes. Luckily most of the nations of the world have been following this conflict and have come to appreciate how such a powerful military might like Russia has conducted itself with discipline, restraint and has made a true effort to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible, while moving steadily but slower at achieving its goals. This conflict is so big, so impactful, that it is shaping and restructuring the entire geopolitical makeup of the world.
Minimum civilian casualties in Ukraine, not in Syria
And you can HEAR THE SILENCE when NAZI NATO and NAZI USA are asked WHY DO YOU WESTERN POWERS KILL SO MANY CIVILIANS IN THE COUNTLESS WARS YOU HAVE WAGED SINCE WW2????
THE SILENCE FROM THE NAZI WEST IS DEAFENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enjoy your censorship here SF. Let’s see whether cheerleading will make you win the wars. But don’t claim to not be a moronic Russian propaganda website. You are losing readers due to your zero tolerance for opposing views even though opposition is little here. Why not just auto-block our usernames so we don’t post at all instead of deleting our comments long after people already replied to them. You are not even hiding this shameful act from your blind supporters. I won’t waste my time commenting here again, except copy-paste this rebuke every now and then.
Gordon Hahn
Can you give us a link for the Statista report?
True. In WWIi, the Americans killed 3 civilians for every German soldier.
Remember Maryupol….10 000 civilians dead because of Russian’s bombs. Short memory ? What can you expect from people supporting a gay lord like putin