Putin's niece accidentally revealed the approximate number of missing Russian soldiers.

Russian authorities have received 48,000 applications for DNA tests to find missing Russian soldiers. This was announced in Russia's Duma by Russian Deputy Defense Minister, Anna Tsivilyova, Putin's niece.

Kartapolov, head of the Duma's defense committee, said this was "secret information," asked that "these figures not be voiced anywhere else" and that the information be removed from the documents.

These numbers are likely on the lower end of the scale of Russian casualties. There is a reasonable probability that the actual numbers are much higher.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Can someone explain in which ways this information is sensitive? I can make some guesses but I expect that I will miss some important aspects of the implications of such a leak

[–] Nikelui 48 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe because they are constantly downplaying the number of victims?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Well if that is the case I'm still confused because 48K is way less than the estimates I've seen (which are an order of magnitude greater)

[–] SkyezOpen 37 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The 48k is just the number of families who actually submitted to find out what happened to the missing soldier. There are probably more unconfirmed dead that haven't had a submission made, and many more confirmed dead, and many many more just injured. The Ukrainians are claiming over 700k dead and wounded, and historically their numbers have been pretty accurate.

[–] Madison420 5 points 2 weeks ago

Bingo, 48000 are unknown. They can't be identified by conventional means which means they're grossly disfigured, rotting and the rest of the members of the unit cannot confirm their identity which in most cases in this war means they've either been captured or killed.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

Those are potentially missing people, which would go on top of confirmed deaths even over the Russian narrative numbers. And the real MIA numbers would obviously be even higher than the ones applied for DNA testing - even if she tries to claim that "some would obviously be found".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's a good point. Maybe it's a "leak", as in another attempt to downplay the number.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

It's the number of families that think their kid/husband/father is missing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

A three day special military operation to free your welcoming neighbours from their oppressive Nazi yoke shouldn’t really involve many casualties at all… but to have 48k people submitting dna swabs for corpse identification suggests that not only are there many dead but there are literally thousands / tens of thousands of “missing” soldiers. AWOL? MIA? KIA? Doesn’t really matter. Big numbers - considering they are not at war.