Biden Incompetence?
According to most estimates, every day of the war in Ukraine costs Russia $500 million to $1 billion. Russia faced a record shortage of factory workers in July 2023, with more than 43% of industrial enterprises facing a shortage, up from 35% in April.
Humanitarian impact: displacement, civilian deaths, veteran crime:
- Civilian losses: at least 388 individuals killed inside Russia as of December 2024.
- Internal displacement: At least 120,000 fled from Russia’s Kursk region alone (estimate in October 2024) with 3,000 staying to live in the Ukrainian-controlled parts of this region (estimate in February 2025). This internal population displacement and criticism of the authorities’ handling of these individuals’ plight creates additional social and political pressure on Putin’s regime.
- External displacement: 800,000 emigrated for economic or political reasons, 0.6% of Russian population.
- Violent crimes by veterans, including offenses committed by convicts who were released from jail on the condition that they would join combat on the Russian side for 6 months or more: at least 1,500 fell victims of these crimes at hands of veterans with 242 persons killed and 227 suffering grave bodily injures (estimate in September 2024).
Military personnel losses: Estimates of the number of Russian servicemen killed or wounded or missing vary, but most recent estimates show casualties of 700,000 or more, for a daily rate of 670 casualties, which is 50% less than the
lower estimate of the casualties suffered by the PLA during the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, a comparable conflict.