Raise Your Privileged Hand If You’re Willing To ‘Fight To The Last Ukrainian’

Recently, a former intelligence official told me that troop casualties are now over 1 million, and that the U.N. estimate of civilian deaths is dramatically higher.

By Douglas Mackinnon, The Hill

Hey, what’s a million-plus dead and wounded when you live thousands of miles away in a bubble of arrogant privilege?

In August 2023, U.S. officials estimated that approximately 500,000 Russian and Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Back in November, the United Nations Human Rights Office said more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians had died.

Recently, a former intelligence official told me that troop casualties are now over 1 million, and that the U.N. estimate of civilian deaths is dramatically higher. Over 1 million dead and wounded men, women and children.

Shouldn’t that obscenely horrific death and casualty number shock us? For a comparison, how would we react if every single man, woman and child in Dallas, San Diego, Austin, Jacksonville or San Jose were killed or wounded while large parts of those cities were leveled to the ground by air and artillery bombardments?

Sadly, tragically, but purposefully, there has been very little reporting on the human cost of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Some in the media have seemingly morphed into stenographers for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with each story beginning: “As Ukraine reports…” or “As Zelensky stated…”