Donnacha Ó Beacháin

It would make it much easier for Russia to simply use a ceasefire to rearm, to regroup and then to move beyond those fortress cities.

So

It's really depressing.

And I know that when I talk about this, you know, we talk about drones and technology and territory.

It's so impersonal.

We lose sight of the people's lives who have been affected in so many ways.

The figures that are often by, you might say, trustworthy sources put out there is that the Russians in terms of casualties doesn't mean deaths.

It means also people who are, you know, unable to survive.

served militarily again.

So they could be killed in action, could be hospitalized, could have lost a limb.

We're talking about 1 million plus.

And again, that's the minimum is 1 million.

It could be as many as 1.2 million.

The Ukrainians have lost less for a variety of reasons, but still the figures would be something in the region of maybe half a million, 400,000, 500,000.

They do have the advantage of the defender.

They are, of course, a different type of soldier in many respects.

I mean, the Russians have put together an army which is less voluntary, you might say.

I mean, Prigozhin was in particular adept at emptying the prisons, offering people an amnesty for whatever crimes they'd committed and brought them to prison.

if they would fight in Ukraine and survive after six months.

After six months of fighting in Ukraine, they were given an amnesty.