Many Ukrainian brigades have at least one, and often several, amputee soldiers still on active duty — men who returned to combat out of a sense of duty amid the grim outlook for their country.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is actually very important news that is contrary to what I have thought! The Russia mostly is not able to give prostethic legs to its wounded soldiers, Ukraine is. That changes the military loss ratios dramatically!

The ratio of total military losses between Ukraine and the Russia has been around 1:2½, while the ratio between populations is 1:3½. However, the ratio between dead is 1:4½. Anything where the ratio is smaller than the population ratio is favouring Ukraine. Now, if a sizable amount of the non-dead military losses in Ukraine are able to return to duty, then a large share of those are not military losses at all! That would mean that even in the number of military losses including the wounded Ukraine is doing better than the Russia. What share of the "irrecoverable" wounds are losses of limbs? Does anyone know?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It probably doesn't change the losses dramatically. Amputees often suffer from other issues, and it's not every person who has the wherewithal within them to go back into the battlefield after losing a limb. These are brave men and women who choose to do so, but it's doubtful that they're the norm - or even numerically significant.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Hm... A brigade consists of 3000 to 7000 soldiers. And the article says "many" have one or several amputees. That would mean something between 1 in 7000 and 5 in 3000. Yeah, that's in the ballpark of a tenth of a percent or a hundredth of a percent. True, not terribly significant. Though, many of them are probably good trainers!