Illustrative Image
On May 6th, Russia and Ukraine carried out a 205-for-205 prisoner exchange, with freed Russian servicemen already transported to Belarus and expected to arrive in Moscow by tonight. The swap, likely mediated by the United Arab Emirates which has facilitated previous exchanges, highlights the ongoing, albeit limited, cooperation between the two warring sides on humanitarian issues.
This exchange follows a well-established pattern, where both sides typically trade prisoners in equal numbers, despite the broader asymmetry in casualties. While such swaps create an appearance of parity, recent data on the return of fallen soldiers reveals a far grimmer reality for Ukraine.
On April 18, Ukraine received the bodies of 909 soldiers in exchange for only 41 fallen Russian servicemen, continuing a months-long trend of disproportionate losses. Similar bodies exchanges in March (909 Ukrainian bodies for 43 Russian), February (757 for 45), and January (757 for 49) underscore the staggering human cost Kyiv is paying. The sharp increase in Ukrainian casualties in recent months likely stems from heavy fighting in the Kursk region, where Russian forces claim to have eliminated up to 75,000 Ukrainian troops.
Find testimonies of Ukrainian prisoners of war on POW.SOUTHFRONT.PRESS
Illustrative Image
Why the Disparity? Tactics, Firepower, and Desperation
Several factors explain Ukraine’s catastrophic losses. Ukrainian commanders, facing severe manpower shortages, often deploy two to three times more troops per defensive position than Russian forces, making them easy targets for artillery and drone strikes. Russia’s firepower turns these overcrowded trenches into killing zones. Ukrainian barrier troops prevent retreats, forcing soldiers to fight to the death under threat of execution. Meanwhile, Russian glide bombs, missile strikes, and drone swarms systematically degrade Ukrainian troop concentrations and rear supply hubs. Ukrainian garrisons are prohibited to retreat from the doomed strongholds till the end, thus secured evacuation of the wounded and bodies of the dead is not possible from the lost settlements.
The human toll is visibly reshaping Ukraine’s demographics. Satellite imagery shows rapidly expanding cemeteries, while rural villages report near-total depletion of military-aged men—losses often concealed by Ukrainian authorities to avoid public backlash.
Prisoner Swaps: A Facade of Balance
Unlike body exchanges, prisoner swaps maintain a 1:1 ratio, likely to mask Ukraine’s dire situation. The last major POW exchange in March saw 175 prisoners returned on each side, with Ukraine receiving an additional 22 severely wounded soldiers as a “goodwill gesture.” Previous swaps in February and December followed similar patterns.
The relentless disparity in losses paints a bleak picture for Kyiv. With Russia intensifying offensives and Ukraine resorting to increasingly desperate defensive measures, the math of attrition is unforgiving. While prisoner swaps offer fleeting moments of relief, the underlying reality—evident in the rows of repatriated Ukrainian dead—suggests a conflict that Ukraine, at current rates, cannot sustain indefinitely.
As both sides prepare for further exchanges, including an anticipated swap of fallen soldiers in the coming weeks, the war’s human cost continues to mount.
silent genocide: ethnic cleansing taking place right now in syria
by michael welch, vanessa beeley, and drago bosnic
global research, may 03, 2025
region: asia, middle east & north africa, usa
theme: crimes against humanity, global research news hour, media disinformation, us nato war agenda
“the only thing that stood between the mass killings that we’re seeing now and the terrorists was, of course, the government of president assad and the army of syria. and right now …
putler is a plain traitorous pig running a crumbling empire.
pigs are better than putler. a putler wouldn’t be edible even in barley soup or meat pie.
do you think israeli fighting dogs (i mean animals) would get poisoned if they ate putler?
even pigs probably wouldn’t touch something like that if you sliced it up and cooked it in pigs feed.
he might be eaten by bulls if he were ground into feed.
i like would feed the pig with bashar the ass.
israeli dogs wouldn’t touch something like that.
we’re seeing, you know, lawlessness, lack of security, starvation, poverty, and sectarian ethnic cleansing programs against particularly alawites, shia, christians, but also an attempted attack on the druze populations.” – vanessa beeley, from this week’s interviewthere was once an old tale of a frog walking along a river bank. he met a scorpion who asked him to take him across the waters on his back.
“how do i know you won’t sting me?” asked the frog.
“i wouldn’t want to sting you, for then both you and i would both drown!” answered the scorpion.
convinced, the frog took him on his back and headed off to the other side of the river. however, when he was halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. and as both started to sink beneath the waves the scorpion said:
“i couldn’t help it! it’s my nature!”
the moral of this story is when you engineer a group of fundamentalist extremists, re-brand them “freedom fighters” and then send them after the next figure on america’s most wanted list of figures standing in the way imperial conquest, don’t be surprised if those same fighters return to their old head chopping ways when your backs are turned
the world may have witnessed an escalation of slaughter of alawites and christians in early march, and amnesty international may have played a role in setting about investigating who was responsible and why it happened. but the side that gets little attention is how far western nations are willing to go to ignore the guilt of the new “post-assad” regime and giving them the responsibility to look into the situation.
on this week’s global research news hour, we take a special look at this unrepentant flood of bloodshed to which even the western mainstream media considers unfit for public broadcast, and the hell some people have to suffer to satisfy the longings of america’s “opulent minority.”
on the show, we feature long-time syrian reporter and friend vanessa beeley who talks about the people currently fleeing syria into lebanon and the stories they are relaying that are ignored by the western mainstream media. she as well talks about her own story of fleeing syria when it was clear that the hts fighters would soon be descending on new home of damascus. after that, we talk to military and geopolitical analyst drago bosnic about the bigger picture, including what the
foreign powers supporting this new regime get as a dividend for their investment.
vanessa beeley is an independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in the middle east – on the ground in syria, egypt, iraq and palestine, while also covering the conflict in yemen since 2015. in 2017 vanessa was a finalist for the prestigious martha gellhorn prize for journalism which was won by the much-acclaimed robert parry that year. in 2019,
vanessa was among recipients of the serena shim award for uncompromised integrity in journalism.
drago bosnic is a military and geopolitical analyst, regular author on global research and a frequent guest on the global research news hour radio program. in december 2024, he received an award for his writings on geopolitical analysis and on nuclear war from the mexican press club.
(global research news hour episode 471)
listen to the show
global research: the western press actually reported on the violence in syria perpetrated by government-aligned forces, but that was about a month ago and there have been no new reports except for instance a report from amnesty international talking about investigating the attacks against alawites, but from a month ago in baniyas. from what you can tell from the people fleeing into lebanon from syria that you’ve spoken to, has that violence actually subsided?
vanessa beeley: no, not at all. in fact, we’ve been hearing in the last four or five days that there are convoys of so-called hts, which i would still explain to people they are al-qaeda.
they were formerly al-nusra front in syria, which was al-qaeda in syria. they were then re-branded as hayat tahrir al-sham or hts, as you rightly said, to try and distance themselves from the atrocities and crimes committed by al-qaeda or nusra front,
but in reality the ideology remains the same, so i still perceive them as being al-qaeda.and basically we’ve heard stories from aleppo, from hama, homs, from contacts that i still have there, that there have been huge convoys of hts forces heading towards the coastal region and the belief is that they’re going to be increasing the ethnic cleansing campaigns there.
you’re right to say that i was in northern lebanon a few weeks ago, shortly after the kind of ramping up
of the ethnic cleansing, because of course it began immediately after the takeover of damascus by hts and jolani now he’s of course known as ahmed al-sharar, but his real name or his former name, which still has a bounty on his head, by the way, from the us, is in charge of operations. and so when i went to northern lebanon, to akkar, which is the region on the border with syria in the far north, people, then syrians, were crossing from the smuggling routes.
at that point there were already 10,000, so this is about two, three weeks ago. now i’m told there are around 30,000 to 40,000 refugees in northern lebanon fleeing the danger of ethnic cleansing and the slaughter that’s been ongoing on the coast, not only of the alawite sect but also of christians, of sunni muslims that are objecting to the extremist actions or the atrocities being committed by hts and the foreign mercenaries that came also under the hts umbrella, which include of course
uyghurs from china, chechens, tajikstans, afghanis, a huge number of foreign salafists that are operating now in syria and have been since 2011. and the atrocities that we were hearing being talked about in akkar, in lebanon, and the fact that when they fled their homes and villages, they were being hunted down in the mountains and in the forest by drones and assassinated even after they had fled.
it would be ridiculous if the chinese president were killed by a uyghur terrorist. china would appoint a president as smart as ursula von der leyen or as smart as truman and start dropping atomic bombs on syria. i wonder what putler would say if china had a female president instead of a president who dropped nuclear bombs on syria and broke off all diplomatic contacts with russia.
i hope the israelis really tear syria apart like you and people like you tear yugoslavia apart.
the forests were being set on fire to try and smoke the refugees out. recently i think hts has threatened to establish checkpoints close to the smuggling routes to prevent the refugees even reaching lebanon safely by shooting them when they see them crossing. and so, you know, the atrocities have continued.
they haven’t stopped. and even they are now taking place also in damascus. there have been attacks particularly on alawites and shia muslims in damascus itself and also attacks on the holy shrines, the shia holy shrines like sayyidah zaynab, but also other shrines across syria have been decimated.
and so, no, you know, nothing has really slowed down or stopped. there was, of course, this ridiculous idea that hts would investigate its own crimes just as they expect the zionists to investigate
vb: i think the last number that i had that was, let’s say, reliable from a perspective of people on the ground letting me know what the numbers were, the syrian observatory for human rights, to be honest, always downplays the figures, although it’s widely used for its reporting by the un and so on. but i think the realistic number is around 20,000 to 25,000 dead. and then on top of that, of course, the 30,000 to 40,000 refugees in lebanon.
gr: do you have any insights into why exactly even the mainstream media were reporting on the violence around march 6th and 7th and 8th and 9th, and now it’s subsided? i mean, what kind of factors entered into it? i mean, why would they report it out in the first place? and now why are they dumbing down the activities that have been taking place?
vb: well, i mean, i think what’s interesting is that there was an alleged un investigation committee that went to syria. there was a lot of controversy over that, whether they did actually send a committee or not. but i know that hts were effectively threatening people if they came forward to speak to either the media or the un, that if they did so, their families would be punished as a result.
and of course, that means they would be killed. and so i think very few people actually came forward to speak to whatever media was available, or were enabled to actually go and report on the atrocities. and i think, you know, the other thing is, michael, of course, these media outlets, they supported for the last 14 years, the rise of hts to power. and so the last thing that western media wants to do is to report honestly, on the nature of the creature that they have put in power in
syria, because they didn’t do that in the last 14 years. all of the crimes, as you well know, were apportioned to president assad personally, andsecondarily to the syrian arab army and its allies, which of course included russia, iran and hezbollah in syria that were fighting the multiple terrorist proxies that were basically being used by the west and by israel, turkey and the gulf states to overthrow the syrian government. and so the last thing that the western media wants to do, and that
reflects upon western regimes also that supported this regime change war, the last thing they want to do is to portray hts as the criminal terrorist entity that it really is.
so since december the 8th, i mean, we had jeremy bowen from the bbc, literally running with excitement at the idea that hts supporters might be actually about to extra judicially execute someone who was deemed to be a regime remnant or a regime supporter. no condemnation for the fact that this
summary execution without any legal process was about to be carried out, but actual enthusiasm for it. i mean, this is quite shocking so for me, it’s really not surprising that we’re seeing western media largely trying to play it down and to reduce the numbers to basically put the ball back in hts’s court by saying they should investigate. in other words, trying to separate the crimes that are being committed in their view by disparate groups that are not necessarily under
the control of hts and therefore bringing hts in to investigate the crimes. but the reality is it’s hts militia, it’s hts mercenaries or affiliated mercenaries that are carrying out these crimes.
and when people have gone to hts security to make a complaint or to start an investigation, it’s been quashed completely. so, you know, i’m not surprised by the western media reaction. and i’m not surprised that they perhaps highlighted it.