I have relatives in Ukraine. No amount of censorship could stop the mil Job Function Email List lions of calls and messages between them. My phone was filled with the most desperate pain. We've been sitting in the basement for four days. They are bombing. We have a jam. No one is allowed in or out. Today I queued for an hour to buy bread. They brought nothing. I could quote hundreds of these messages. There are millions of people like me in Russia. Witnessing this kind of disaster is better than political debate.
The theory is more convincing. It is dangerous for us to discuss the number of Russian military casualties in Ukraine. This is the most sensitive issue for governments that follow these discussions closely. The government officially acknowledged that several soldiers were killed in action. Even this number is staggeringly high. The Soviet Union lost more than 1,000 soldiers and officers during the ten-year war in Afghanistan. Death has a greater harvest today. The ban on this information has led to speculation that the numbers released by Ukraine are likely to be exaggerated.