I've already stated my position in
this post. We're not going to get anything close to the actual numbers from ANY source until well after the war is over, historians will probably figure it out around the time when I have grand kids. This little discussion was to illustrate the point that all the claimed casualty numbers we have are flawed, and we shouldn't be casually throwing them around and going "Ukraine/Russia is winning!" We should stick to things which we can actually observe & confirm with a reasonable degree of confidence.
As for the DoD, shit man, it took them till August to figure it out? Attacking into a 50km deep multi-layered trench system with tank traps, minefields, fortifications, and more artillery than the US has in its entire inventory that's backed up by aviation when the Ukrainians had no air support and little mine clearing was only going to end one way. Especially when they telegraphed the entire operation. What kind of retard thought that would succeed in the first place?