Both Ukraine and Russia were part of the USSR. Ukraine also lost millions. I am not sure which point you are trying to make. Russia losing millions of people over Ukraine really would be something.

Russia killed (starved, mostly) millions of Ukrainians before WWII, and sent myriads to the GULag before, during, and after.

That Russians also sent millions of Russians to the GULag -- including most POWs repatriated at war's end -- does not make it less bad.

The Russian army does not use conscripts in forces used in Ukraine.

U.S. News and World Report says they do.[1]

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u-s-sees-evidence-of-mo...

Of course they say so, it's the same people who talk about "fairly slow and stodgy progress": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30516996#30522179

I haven't seen a single reliable message in Russian social media from conscript's mothers and, believe me, they would not have been quite. And no, you can not hide use of conscripts from relatives on such scale.

"‘I’m panicking — where is my child?’ Conscript soldiers are being sent to fight against Ukraine, their relatives say. Here’s what their families told Meduza."[1]

That's a Latvian source. May be propaganda. Other sources saying the same thing track back to that one.

The Russian army has "contract soldiers", who signed up, and "conscripts", who are drafted to serve for one year. I've been looking for good counts. Most conscripts are in the army; The navy, air force, and strategic rocket force are mostly (entirely?) contract soldiers.

[1] https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/02/26/i-m-panicking-where-...