Your losses from Russia in Ukraine they reached 74,014 military deaths in mid-October, according to research carried out systematically by the BBC (Russian service) in conjunction with the Russian website Mediazona and a group of volunteers.
This number refers to the names of Russians who were killed and identified based on data published in open sources.
Over the past three weeks, the BBC reports, there has been a sharp increase in publications about Russians who were killed in the war. On average every week around 1,000 Russian soldiers are killed. This does not mean, however, that all of them were killed in the last seven days. In many obituaries, the date of death is recorded as early 2024 or even in the early years of the war.
But the increasing rates of human casualties in the last two weeks are higher than the weekly averages of 2022 and 2023.
The increase in casualties in the ranks of the Russian armed forces may be the result of Russian offensive operations in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, such as the attack on Ughlendar (Bukhledar), which was captured in early October, and the attack on Pokrovsk, where the battles continue.
Other possible reasons are the gradual confirmation of Russian losses in the Russian Kursk region or the effects of the summer offensive campaign. The increase in death notifications may also be a combination of all these factors.
The biggest losses are recorded among volunteersthat is, among those who signed contracts after the start of the Russian invasion, totaling 14,929, or 21% of all identified military dead.
As of September this year, losses of volunteers began to exceed losses of other categories, such as prisoners (19%) and recruits (13%).
The Russian military still uses Wagner mercenary tactics, which are wave attacks by small attack groups in different directions. This method results in many casualties, but exhausts the enemy and reduces the defensive power of the Ukrainian artillery.
Since the invasion began, Russia has lost 4,217 officers in Ukraine, including seven generals and another 467 men with the rank of lieutenant colonel and higher.
The number of police officers killed includes 1,165 elite management-level experts. This number includes, as the BBC investigation reports, the dead officers of the airborne troops, marines, special forces, special purpose units of the Rosgvardia (Russian Guard) and air force pilots amounting to 258.
THE real losses are obviously much larger than can be determined from open sources. Military experts interviewed by media journalists indicate that records from surveys of Russian cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries may cover between 45% and 65% of the actual number of victims.
This is partly due to the fact that the bodies of a considerable number of soldiers Those who lost their lives in recent months may still be on the battlefield.
Based on the above estimate, the actual death toll on the Russian side could range between 113,900 and 164,500.
Source: AMPE