1/ Russian sources say that as many as 70-90% of all Russian deaths on the battlefield are caused by bleeding, rather than fatal wounds. An effective collapse of the Russian army's combat medical care means that anything more than a light wound is likely to be lethal. ⬇️
2/ Vot Tak reports on the dire situation facing injured Russian soldiers on Ukraine's front lines. Interviews with wounded soldiers and their relatives illustrate the extent of the problems they have faced.
3/ The sister of a man from Irkutsk who was seriously wounded in March 2023 said that he was "lucky that his colleague dragged him, they usually don’t do that. Usually they are abandoned and everyone is listed as missing in action – both wounded and killed."
4/ "He says they ran, and then walked through a field strewn with corpses. They simply walked over still warm bodies. It’s terrible, he talked and cried."
5/ Andrei Kravchenko, a lieutenant who suffered multiple injuries in fighting at Pervomaiske in February 2023, says that his unit had to organise their own evacuations.
6/ "Under enemy artillery fire or, if lucky, during a short break, the driver in the minivan very quickly drove up to the positions and picked up the wounded. In my case, evacuation was not even provided for, since there was a “meat assault.”
7/ "Such assaults take place in “grey zones” that are inaccessible neither to them nor to us. These zones are constantly fought over, causing heavy losses.
8/ "Therefore, the evacuation of our wounded is enormously difficult due to the constant shelling by enemy guns and his observation of our movements.
9/ "A lot of our dead tried, without air or artillery support, to carry out those who were no longer wounded, but just bodies. Without this support, evacuation from the field is almost impossible."
10/ The problem of evacuation likely doomed Viktor Bashmurov, a mobilised firefighter from the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, whose sister Olga has been trying to find him since he was badly wounded near Klishchiivka on 20 August 2023.
11/ According to Olga, "he had a shrapnel wound to the kneecap. When they tried to evacuate themselves, he broke his second leg and was immobilized. [Colleagues] dragged him a little further and hid him under a pile of boards and iron. They ran five kilometers."
12/ The other men were wounded themselves, but according to Olga, Viktor was "simply left on the battlefield. The battalion commander will not risk either equipment or himself for the sake of one or two soldiers." Viktor has not been heard from since then.
13/ Commanders in general seem to be reluctant to take risks to evacuate the wounded. In September 2023, relatives of men from the Altai Territory complained that those "with shell shock and shrapnel wounds are left in the trenches".
14/ More Altai men complained in March that commanders in the Donetsk region "are afraid of losing equipment and are afraid of being attacked by shells." As a result, only the lightly wounded were being evacuated.
15/ Evacuating on foot is a very risky business, as the Ukrainians will pick off stretcher parties with drones and cluster bombs. Kravchenko was fortunate to avoid this:
16/ "My more or less lightly wounded comrades and I managed to overcome several kilometers on our own under constant drops from ukrodrones towards the rear, not knowing how we would be able to receive medical assistance. Miraculously, no one was hurt."
17/ He was also lucky to find medically trained personnel when he got there. "One of my subordinates from the rear post knew that there was a post with paramedics nearby.
18/ As it turned out, they are volunteers from the Russian Federation and have some kind of medical qualifications. They bandaged us, sedated us, and called a BMP. Seven hours after the battle, I and three of my comrades were evacuated to a primary hospital within Donetsk."
19/ This is far from a typical situation, however. Russian army doctrine calls for each battalion to have a medical group comprising doctors, paramedics and orderlies, as well as special transport. Kravchenko says that none of this was the case in his unit:
20/ "The medical brigade in my regiment was created from teachers, professors and researchers with scientific and technical degrees and located far from medicine. Evacuation teams are prepared spontaneously – whoever is free will go. There are no BMPs.
21/ "There are medicines, more or less, thanks to the humanitarian workers and all the ordinary people who are not indifferent and continue to help."
22/ Kravchenko says that he has not seen a single field mobile hospital: he believes that very few exist, and several of those that do exist have been destroyed by Ukrainian attacks. Other soldiers have spoken about the lack of medical care.
23/ Kravchenko comments that "an injury is considered severe when neither tourniquets with bandages nor haemostatic [medication] will help you survive. These are groin wounds, three or four severed limbs, open head trauma.
24/ "Tacitly, priority is given to fighters who can be saved. So that during evacuation, so to speak, we don't waste energy and don't take risks for the sake of – God forgive me – a goner."
25/ Many of these deaths are preventable. According to the head of the Kalashnikov Centre for Tactical Medicine, Artyom Katulin, 70 to 90% of all deaths occur not from fatal wounds, but from bleeding. At least 25% of those who die are considered "potentially salvageable".
26/ It's likely that this calculation factors into Ukraine's heavy use of drone-dropped grenades and its very high claims of Russian fatalities. Taking into account Russia's lack of combat medicine, it may be a reasonable assumption that visibly injured soldiers will likely die.
27/ The same grim calculation probably also lies behind the videoed suicides of wounded Russian soldiers. They likely believe that the alternative is a slow death waiting for an evacuation that will never come. This may also be a reasonable assumption for them. /end
aif.ru/society/army/o…
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