Ukrainian battlefield deaths could impact country’s demography
demography in the coming years.
Ukraine gives no official toll of its war dead — the Ukrainian armed forces have reiterated that their war casualty numbers are a state secret – but various estimates say losses are huge.
The figures remain classified. But US officials, quoted by the New York Times, recently put the number at 70,000 dead and as many as 120,000 injured.
It is a staggering figure, from an armed forces estimated at only half a million strong.
In just a year and a half, Ukraine’s military deaths have already surpassed the number of American troops who died during the nearly two decades U.S.
units were in Vietnam (roughly 58,000) and about equal the number of Afghan security forces killed over the entire war in Afghanistan, from 2001 to 2021 (around 69,000), according to a New York Times (NYT) article.
The deaths may be cause for alarm for Ukraine as rate of attrition may impact the nation’s demography and even gene pool.
Public perceptions about the war are changing and a section of the population in the West see a war of attrition as one that only extends the misery of the Ukrainian people and, therefore, believe that efforts should be made for a negotiated settlement.
The other section of the Western population, however, are pushing for more robust support for Ukraine with tanks, aircraft, and other advanced platforms, to break the stalemate.
Ukraine's economy is struggling under the weight of the conflict and it is heavily dependent on Western aid. In Slovakia, a far-right party opposed to Ukraine aid won the general election; while in Germany support for the far-right AfD is surging.
