According to the US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Russia’s losses in Ukraine over the past year exceed losses in all wars involving the Soviet or Russian military since World War II combined, the BBC Russian service reports.
According to CSIS, the total losses of the Russians in Ukraine in killed and wounded are 200-250 thousand people. From them 60-70 thousand diedincluding not only regular troops, but also mercenaries of the private military company (PMC) “Wagner”, employees of the Russian special services and the militias of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.
The data of the Ukrainian General Staff about the Russian losses are very high – about 150 thousand people.
But even the more moderate data provided by CSIS suggests that Russia is suffering the worst losses in its history since 1945.
According to official figures, 14,000-16,000 Soviet soldiers died in Afghanistan, 12,000-25,000 Russian soldiers died in the two Chechen campaigns and 6,000-7,000 died in Donbas before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, CSIS wrote in its report.
It also follows from the document that the rate of losses in Ukraine significantly exceeds the situation in other conflicts. In Chechnya, for example, the Russian army loses from 95 to 185 people per month, in Afghanistan – 130-145, and in Ukraine – 5-5.8 thousand killed per month.
According to CSIS analysts, the Russian command made a number of serious miscalculations that led, among other things, to such high losses of personnel. The very beginning of the war turned out to be unexpectedly difficult for the Kremlin, which did not expect resistance from either the armed forces of Ukraine or the civilian population.
Russia then decided to enter a war of attrition mode, hoping that its superiority in weapons and that Western supplies would sooner or later stop. But the deliveries not only did not stop, but surpassed the Russian arsenal in terms of quality and efficiency, the report says.
For a year, the BBC, Mediazona (recognized by the Russian authorities as a foreign agent) and a team of volunteers identified more than 15,000 Russian soldiers, who died in Ukraine after the start of a full-scale invasion. This is only a fraction of the total losses, although it is higher than the official figures of the authorities.
The White House: Over 30,000 Wagnerites have died in Ukraine
Of them, 90 percent are prisoners
