Moscow’s losses in Ukraine
BBC counts more than 50,000 fallen Kremlin soldiers
April 17, 2024, 5:11 p.m
Russia is paying a high price for its war of aggression in Ukraine. According to a count by the BBC, more than 50,000 Moscow soldiers have already fallen. The actual number is likely to be much higher.
According to an analysis by the British broadcaster BBC, the number of confirmed Russian casualties in the war against Ukraine is now higher than 50,000. This comes from counts by the Russian-speaking BBC editorial team, the independent media group Mediazona and volunteers, according to a published BBC report. However, according to Western estimates, the actual number is likely to be more than twice as high because many deaths cannot be confirmed.
Satellite images of cemeteries, some of which were verified with images and videos from the ground, official reports, newspapers and social media were evaluated. The deaths among the pro-Russian fighters from the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk occupied by Moscow were not counted. According to the BBC report, there is no current official figure on the extent of Russian losses.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in mid-April, citing Western intelligence services, that the number of killed and wounded Russian soldiers had now exceeded 350,000. At the end of November last year, there was talk in NATO circles of well over 100,000 dead – with estimated total losses at the time amounting to more than 300,000 Russian soldiers. These numbers cannot be independently verified. Moscow does not provide any precise information about the losses in its own ranks.
According to experts, one of the reasons for the high losses of the Russian invasion troops in Ukraine is a so-called meat grinder tactic, in which the enemy lines are stormed with a large number of attackers. However, this turned out to be very costly and brought only small territorial gains.
According to Kiev, Ukraine lost 31,000 soldiers by February of this year. According to experts, these are the officially confirmed deaths. The true number is likely to be higher due to many unclear cases.