The government of Ukraine has claimed that the Russian military has suffered as many as 15,000 casualties as a result of its invasion of Ukraine (though those “casualties” may include wounded in addition to deceased troops). Last week there was reporting that the U.S. government believed the Russian death toll might be closer to 7,000. But anything in that range would be devastating for Vladimir Putin, given that he thought he’d stroll into Ukraine and own the place within days.

Now a Kremlin-controlled news outlet has announced that 9,861 Russian troops have been killed in action, and 16,153 Russian troops have been wounded in action. These numbers are far worse than even the ugliest third party estimates. Notably, the Kremlin-controlled site quickly took the numbers down, and claimed it was the work of hackers – but not before a Ukrainian publication was able to document it.

While international hacking groups have been targeting Russia since Putin began his invasion, there is no evidence that these numbers were posted by hackers. Instead it appears that the Kremlin mistakenly published the real numbers on one of its puppet news outlets. Such a mistake would also raise further questions about what’s really going on within Putin’s regime, which appears to become more inept, error-prone, self destructive, and outside of Putin’s grasp by the day.

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