You have to hand it to them: Russian officials are experts in looking for the silver lining.

Mention the war in Ukraine, and they won’t talk about isolation from the West or their overheated economy — they’ll point to a rising multipolar world and low unemployment instead.

And while no one talks about the estimated 1 million Russian troops killed or injured (not to mention Ukrainian casualties), they will tell you about how the onslaught has helped Russia advance in the prosthetics industry.

“The participants of the special military operation have allowed us to reach a new flagship level,” Anna Tsivilyova, deputy minister of defense and the daughter of President Vladimir Putin’s cousin, said Thursday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, using the Kremlin’s euphemism for its war in Ukraine.

“We are probably leading in this field now. Neither China, the Asia-Pacific countries, nor European countries offer such a comprehensive service,” she added.

Tsivilyova referred to Russian war veterans as a “driving force through which the government began actively implementing those innovations and accumulated global expertise right here in our country.”

“Guys with double lower limb amputations stand on snowboards, on skis … play tennis, go rock climbing, mountaineering, ride bicycles, play guitars” and other sports, she explained. “I think that this is a huge leap in the field of prosthetics.”

Her comments were streamed on the forum’s website and first reported by the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti. 

Despite Tsivilyova’s rosy outlook, various Russian independent media have reported on monthslong delays and other problems for injured soldiers who need prosthetics. 

Analyzing data from Russia’s labor ministry, the investigative outfit Takie Dela has calculated that 152,500 artificial limbs were issued in 2024, a 53-percent surge compared with the year before. 

The number of wheelchairs given out skyrocketed by 18 percent. 

Another independent Russian media outlet, Verstka, in March last year estimated that the war in Ukraine has severely injured some 100,000 Russian soldiers, at least half of whom, according to official statistics, have had to undergo amputations. The real figure is likely to be much higher.

“Progress in medicine is a good thing,” the Kremlin-critical political analyst Fyodor Krasheninnikov wrote on Telegram in response to Tsivilyova’s words, “but in the 21st century it would be preferable to achieve it without resorting to such barbaric methods,” like the war in Ukraine.