[Verse 1]
Forty thousand Russian soldiers fell in June alone
Kremlin's grand advance has crumbled, brittle as dry bone
Al Jazeera's counting bodies where the front lines broke apart
Putin doubles down regardless, cold arithmetic for art
Germany is reading cables, shaking heads in Berlin halls —
Chinese soil, Russian soldiers, training behind foreign walls
"Deeply disturbing," said the ministers, and that's a quote —
Something rotten crossing borders, diplomatic ulcerthrote
[Chorus]
The costs keep ballooning, treasure spent like river flood
Moscow burning through its students, burning through its blood
Africa's young men were promised fortune, found the mud instead
Recruited, shipped to Kherson, counting foxholes, counting dead
The ruble hemorrhages outward, CSIS runs the tab —
Putin's war machine keeps lurching like a ghost that won't go back
[Verse 2]
Russia's running short on soldiers, so they're eyeing lecture halls
Students swapping dissertations for the conscription calls
BBC reported classrooms emptying across the land
Professors watching desks go vacant, chalk dust, no more hands
And from the African savannah, promises were spun like silk —
Work abroad, good wages waiting, honey turned to silt
PBS found the survivors telling stories, cold and plain:
Lured by Moscow's paper contracts, delivered straight to Ukraine
[Chorus]
The costs keep ballooning, treasure spent like river flood
Moscow burning through its students, burning through its blood
Africa's young men were promised fortune, found the mud instead
Recruited, shipped to Kherson, counting foxholes, counting dead
The ruble hemorrhages outward, CSIS runs the tab —
Putin's war machine keeps lurching like a ghost that won't go back
[Verse 3]
Western allies keep the weapons flowing, slow but steady stream
Kyiv holds the line through winter, summer, shattered dream
Sanctions stacking, oligarchs are watching assets freeze
Moscow trades in rhetoric, but rhetoric won't appease
The Institute for War logs every village, every ridge —
Each disputed kilometer a burned and broken bridge
History won't grade on curves when final tallies show
What it cost to feed a empire's vanity and ego
[Bridge]
Russia Matters filed the report card, grades are failing red —
Institute for the Study of War maps every inch of dread
No neat victory, no clean surrender on the eastern plain
Just the calendar keeps turning, July fourth, and still Ukraine
[Chorus]
The costs keep ballooning, treasure spent like river flood
Moscow burning through its students, burning through its blood
Africa's young men were promised fortune, found the mud instead
Recruited, shipped to Kherson, counting foxholes, counting dead
The ruble hemorrhages outward, CSIS runs the tab —
Putin's war machine keeps lurching like a ghost that won't go back
[Outro]
Forty thousand gone in June —
The Kremlin hums a different tune
Students march where scholars stood
That's your briefing, understood