[Goose]

But that figure (~80,000) given by the Pentagon is from early August, so I'd think their estimates today would be closer to Ukraine's. Even if casualties includes wounded, which it technically shouldn't, I agree, that's an awfully high figure for a war not even a year old. 

I don’t know whether this estimate is close to reality, but Ukraine’s armed forces claims that it has killed more than 100,000 Russian troops and mercs in the war to date: https://www.foxnews.com/world/ukraine-cl...hs-war.amp

For what it’s worth, the article says the US estimates up to 80,000 “casualties,” which I take to include wounded. 

But if you believe the Ukrainian source, the most up to date claim (113k) if true would be similar to the number of lives than the US military lost in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

"Casualties" does include wounded, at least according to the Oxford definition. It is a somewhat imprecise term because "wounded" ranges from not expected to live to needs a bandage. The military itself has more precise reporting methods, not that the actual numbers are necessarily more accurate.

Unfortunately I think we have to take these numbers with a box of salt. Even best case, the "reports" from the field are wrong. Enemy casualty counts are extrapolations in most cases, not exhaustive counts. There is no time for that. They are also greatly influenced by wishful thinking, even when everybody is trying to "do it right". If you are being forced back, you don't control the area where the count would be made, so it becomes a guess. Several units are fighting in the same area. They make a guess and somebody adds them together. To what degree they overlap (or don't) is unknown. You then have any intentional "distortions" tacked on by higher headquarters or the propaganda ministry. These numbers could be exactly right, but we can't know that. However, even if they are 200% of "reality", it is a lot of dead Russians. The real "interesting" fact that should really give one pause is how Russian society could be so in the dark about the number of guys who aren't coming back. It may be you can fool all the people for a very long time, or it may be that Russian society is so inured to such arbitrary loss of life that it is "no big deal" to them.

[Goose]

But that figure (~80,000) given by the Pentagon is from early August, so I'd think their estimates today would be closer to Ukraine's. Even if casualties includes wounded, which it technically shouldn't, I agree, that's an awfully high figure for a war not even a year old. 

I don’t know whether this estimate is close to reality, but Ukraine’s armed forces claims that it has killed more than 100,000 Russian troops and mercs in the war to date: https://www.foxnews.com/world/ukraine-cl...hs-war.amp

For what it’s worth, the article says the US estimates up to 80,000 “casualties,” which I take to include wounded. 

But if you believe the Ukrainian source, the most up to date claim (113k) if true would be similar to the number of lives than the US military lost in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

"Casualties" does include wounded, at least according to the Oxford definition. It is a somewhat imprecise term because "wounded" ranges from not expected to live to needs a bandage. The military itself has more precise reporting methods, not that the actual numbers are necessarily more accurate.

Unfortunately I think we have to take these numbers with a box of salt. Even best case, the "reports" from the field are wrong. Enemy casualty counts are extrapolations in most cases, not exhaustive counts. There is no time for that. They are also greatly influenced by wishful thinking, even when everybody is trying to "do it right". If you are being forced back, you don't control the area where the count would be made, so it becomes a guess. Several units are fighting in the same area. They make a guess and somebody adds them together. To what degree they overlap (or don't) is unknown. You then have any intentional "distortions" tacked on by higher headquarters or the propaganda ministry. These numbers could be exactly right, but we can't know that. However, even if they are 200% of "reality", it is a lot of dead Russians. The real "interesting" fact that should really give one pause is how Russian society could be so in the dark about the number of guys who aren't coming back. It may be you can fool all the people for a very long time, or it may be that Russian society is so inured to such arbitrary loss of life that it is "no big deal" to them.