Russia is hiding its losses in the Ukraine war. Research now shows that the number of Putin's dead soldiers is probably significantly higher.
Moscow – The losses for Russia in the Ukraine war are high. There was no doubt about that for a long time. Although President Vladimir Putin's armed forces are not disclosing official numbers of deaths in Ukraine, BBC research suggests that the Russian army has long since passed a grim milestone. A milestone that the Kremlin is apparently only too happy to keep quiet about.
Russia's losses in Ukraine war exceed new milestone
However, Russia is not alone in its losses in the Ukraine war. Kiev also rarely comments on the extent of their deaths on the battlefield. In February, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed - but estimates based on US intelligence put Ukraine's losses even higher.
The Russian BBC's
research
into Russian losses, which was carried out together with the independent media group
Mediazona
and volunteers who have counted the graves of killed Russian soldiers since 2022, shows something similar.
Heavy losses for Russia in the Ukraine war: Putin covers up true figures in the “meat grinder”
Accordingly, Russia's losses since the start of the Ukraine war are said to amount to over 50,000 soldiers killed. According to research, the number of unreported cases could be much higher. The total number of deaths is eight times higher than the only official public confirmation of the death toll, which Moscow announced in September 2022.
What is particularly devastating for Russia is that the analysis does not take into account the deaths of the militias in the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. If they were included, the death toll on the Russian side would be even higher. Russia itself did not comment on the published figures in the research.
Colossal losses for Russia in the Ukraine war: Putin covers up true figures in the “meat grinder”
What is also particularly striking is that Russia suffered even more significant losses in the second 12 months of the Ukraine war than at the beginning of Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine. According to BBC findings, more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died in the second year of fighting, showing that the territorial gains came at a high human cost.
On the one hand, this circumstance is due to the strategies and adaptation of the Ukrainian armed forces, but the research particularly emphasizes the aspect that the colossal losses of Putin's armed forces can be attributed to their own "meat grinder" tactics. The term “meat grinder” has been used to describe the way Moscow relentlessly sends waves of soldiers forward to wear down Ukrainian forces and expose their locations to Russian artillery.
Russia's heavy losses in the Ukraine war: grueling offensive for Putin's soldiers
An example of this includes the devastating fighting around Vuhledar, when the Russian military launched a large-scale offensive in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. In the fighting for the city of Wuhledar, the Russians used “ineffective human wave-style frontal attacks,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
“Difficult terrain, lack of combat power and failure to surprise Ukrainian forces” resulted in low gains and high combat losses, the ISW continued. The heavy and, above all, loss-making battles for Bakhmut or Avdiivka also claimed a high death toll.
Severe losses for Russia: Estimates of the number of deaths of Putin's troops are revealing
The
BBC
estimates that at least two in five of the dead Russian fighters are people who had nothing to do with Putin's military before the start of the Ukraine war. At the start of the 2022 invasion, Russia was able to “use its professional troops to carry out complex military operations,” explains Samuel Cranny-Evans from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) to the BBC.
“But many of these experienced soldiers are now probably dead or wounded,” says the defense expert. These troops have been replaced by people with little training or military experience - such as volunteers, civilians and prisoners. A development that underpins an explanation for Russia's heavy losses in the Ukraine war.
Russia's secret losses in the Ukraine war: Putin is probably cheating the relatives of the dead soldiers
In Russia itself, the high losses in the Ukraine war also have direct effects. Putin's soldiers are apparently making serious accusations against the Kremlin. Accordingly, the army should deliberately not inform family members of soldiers who died in war about their death. The reason: the state does not have to make any compensation payments to the surviving dependents. At least that's what comes from a phone call intercepted by Ukrainian military intelligence.
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Putin promised the surviving relatives of a deceased soldier a one-off payment of almost five million Russian rubles, which would be equivalent to almost 50,000 euros. Additional small payments were intended to support families on a monthly basis, as
Newsweek
says. Overall, the Kremlin stated that it had planned a budget for 100,000 deceased soldiers and their families in the state budget in 2024. And discontent in Russia – at least among the soldiers – seems to be growing. Given the high losses, more and more people are apparently questioning Putin's war in Ukraine. This is not just shown by this example.