Russian media outlets Mediazona and Meduza have made a new estimate of the losses of the Russian army during a full-scale war — about 160-165 thousand dead soldiers, officers, contract workers, mobilized and other Russians.
This number of deaths was calculated using statistics on excess male mortality during the war, comparison and analysis of specific documents: name lists of the dead, the Register of Inheritance Cases.
One of the main conclusions of the study was that the losses of the Russian army are increasing year by year:
- In 2022, about 20 000 Russians died in a full-scale war.
- In 2023, another 47 to 53 thousand deaths were added to the number of losses;
- In 2024, the number of losses approached 100 thousand.
Russia suffered the greatest losses when it stormed the Bakhmut direction. The daily death toll there almost never fell below 200 soldiers.
During the first 6-12 months of the war, Russia lost mostly regular soldiers, and then a significant number of mobilized soldiers were added to them. Already in early 2023, many mobilized prisoners died, mainly fighting near Bakhmut. From mid-2023, a massive campaign to recruit volunteers was launched, the mortality of which became the highest among all categories of the Russian military.
- According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during the full-scale war, Russia lost about 868 230 soldiers killed and wounded.
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