Russia has 1,187 soldier casualties per day in Ukraine, volunteers die more often than prisoners

remiered Sep 8, 2024

Using open data, the BBC, together with the publication Mediazona and a team of volunteers, identified the names of 68,011 Russian soldiers killed during the invasion of Ukraine. More than half of them were not connected with the army when the war began.

For the first time, the category of volunteer servicemen came out on top in terms of the total number of losses – those who decided to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense or the Russian National Guard after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

İt is confirmed the death of 13,152 volunteers, which is 20% of the total number of confirmed losses on the Russian side. For the first time since the beginning of the war, the losses of volunteers exceeded the losses of other categories of war participants, including prisoners and mobilized soldiers.

An estimated 610,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update.

The staggering casualty figure - the latest Western estimate of Moscow's significant losses in Ukraine - highlights Russia's ability to sustain huge losses as the grueling conflict shows no sign of slowing.

Last month alone, Russia saw an average of 1,187 casualties per day, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an update, citing reports from Ukrainian troops that Business Insider could not independently verify. That figure is slightly higher than Moscow's average daily casualties in July, which were 1,140 troops.

Britain said the increase in Russian casualties was "almost certainly" linked to Ukraine's ongoing invasion of Russia, which has been going on for about a month, and Russia's continued advance towards the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine has said one of the aims of its invasion of Russia's Kursk region was to divert Moscow's forces from the Pokrovsk sector. However, Kyiv has acknowledged that the attempt to ease pressure on this critical section of the front line has failed.

"Russia continues to rely on mass to mitigate shortages of personnel and equipment," the UK Ministry of Defence said in a statement. "While Russian pressure across the frontline will continue over the next month, their limited capabilities are likely to continue to reduce their ability to exploit any tactical gains to achieve wider operational benefits."

The Defense Ministry added that Russia's casualties were likely to continue to exceed 1,000 a day for the rest of September as its troops fought along a sprawling front line. Moscow has suffered consistently high casualties since early summer.

In addition to personnel, Russia has lost a huge amount of military equipment since the war began. This includes nearly 10,000 armored vehicles, hundreds of aircraft and helicopters, and dozens of naval vessels, according to the open-source intelligence site Oryx, which tracks military losses on both sides.

Military analysts say that despite these losses and the high level of wear and tear on equipment, Russia could still wage war in Ukraine for years.