All about Russia’s losses in Ukraine
- Olga Ivshina
- BBC
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Based on open data, the BBC Russian Service has established that the names of 2,336 Russian soldiers who died during the fighting in Ukraine have already been confirmed. Officially voiced by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The BBC reveals its analysis only on reports containing specific information about the deceased, including the full name and rank and, if possible, the place of burial.
collect information about the dead among local residents, educational institutions where citizens studied, as well as relatives. But some casualties are not publicly reported, so our list is incomplete, and the revenue from the growth of the army and the National Guard in Ukraine is higher.
However, the amount of data collected helps to identify the main impact and analyze what is happening to the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.
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New alleys in cemeteries
The masses of the population do not report some loss of publicity, the BBC is assessing new graves appearing in cemeteries in various places in Russia.
We noticed that separate alleys with the burial places of the military who died after February 24, 2014, appeared at the cemetery of the city of Mikhailovsk, Stavropol Territory. At the moment, there are already 26 fresh graves on this alley. For every flower belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as many crosses, flags of the Airborne Forces and military intelligence are attached.
The names of at least seven people who died after the start of the invasion of Russia in Ukraine and were buried in this alley in Mikhailovsk have never been publicly released.
a separate plot for the burial of the elite and in the cemetery of Krasnodar in the area of the Kopansky farm. About this to ordinary journalists told cemetery worker. The BBC has studied these military graves and found the graves of at least 11 soldiers and officers who may have died in Ukraine. They were from 19 to 37 years old, photographs were installed on the crosses in official order, wreaths from the Russian Ministry of Defense are located nearby. None of the 11 dead have been released publicly.
In this cemetery visited local journalists, they considered 26 possible invasions from Russia to Ukraine. However, some of the deceased are approaching the age of 60, so we did not take them into account in our calculations.
An alley with new graves also appeared at the Kurgan cemetery in Kazan – where the BBC discovered a radioactive grave of soldiers who died in Ukraine. The families were not named publicly.
The last time the Russian Ministry of Defense officially reported on the loss was on March 25, announcing a meeting of 1,351 servicemen. The list compiled by the BBC with the help of a team of volunteers contains 1.8 times as many families.
The General Staff of Ukraine gives a big figure – more than 26 thousand dead Russian soldiers.
Deaths of officers
Of the 2,336 dead, 443 are officers ranging from junior lieutenant to general. This is 19% of the number of all military personnel in the list of reserve forces of the Russian army, which the BBC is included in the beginning of the war.
A similar trend has been observed in previous BBC calculations. The share of officers in the total number of collected dead has not changed and has been 19-20% for the third month, despite the fact that more and more bodies of servicemen killed in Ukraine are being brought to Russia.
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It can be conveyed that the death toll percentages are indeed high.
“Sergeants and other junior commanders in the Russian army most often only manage equipment or follow orders, they practically do not lead anyone. combat than the chiefs of many other armies.” – Samuel Crenny-Evans of the British Royal Institute of Defense Research.
Russian officers also have to take risks and spend more time in dangerous areas due to problems related to cooperation, export expert.
Now the list of confirmed losses of the Russian military includes two generals, 16 colonels (including one captain of the first rank), 37 lieutenant colonels, 67 majors and 321 officers in the rank from junior lieutenant to captain.
Judging by the publication, on the indicated date of the appearance of the fighters, citizens of the Russian Federation suffered a serious reduction already on the first day of the war, during the investigation of Mediazon (recognized by the general public as a foreign media agent).
The number of casualties per day for this scarcity of resources whether the real picture, however, allows you to get sick on which days the fights were intense consumption. According to Mediazona’s calculations, Russia may suffer heavy losses on March 12 – this may be due to the battles for Mariupol, and also on February 24 – on the first day of the Invasion.
These data can hardly be compared with the losses of the Russian army in other conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, since neither Russia nor the USSR published detailed information about those who died during the war in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
there are even frequent fallouts in previous cases with the emergence of Russia. For example, according to the official version, during the war in Chechnya, Russia lost about 11,000 servicemen. According to the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers, during first and second More than 20,000 soldiers and officers were killed in the Chechen campaign.
New category: “volunteers”
Since the beginning of May, the Russian Federation began to write about the Russians who died in Ukraine, fighting outside the Russian army units. Such cases have become cases in their statements even the heads of some regions.
Until May, there were no such publications – neither from the local media, nor from the authorities. In a series of seven years of Russian officials, there were practically no deaths of Russians who fought as part of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. But now the local authorities are gathering an organization and gathering at the farewell ceremony.
Over the past 10 days, the BBC has observed 16 meetings of Russians, engulfed by international authorities and the media, who have been called “volunteers who have decided to participate in special operations.”
Of these, four were reserve officers, three more were simply Cossack associations. All 16 had previously served in the armed forces. Some articles mention that foreign military enlistment offices want to fight in Ukraine.
For example, 49-year-old Nail Khaliullin from Naberezhnye Chelny ended up in Donbass in the area of ”a volunteer detachment sent from the military commissariat of Komsomolsk”.
It is now practically impossible to get to Donbass from Russia on your own. Due to restrictions on coronavirus introduced back in 2020, only those who have a local residence permit, relatives or a work contract are officially allowed to leave Russia towards the self-proclaimed republics.
In early March, Russian border guards stepped up those who make individual travel from Russia to Donetsk to take part in hostilities. Men who went to the Donbass as part of detachments assembled by initiative military registration and enlistment offices and Cossack associations, apparently, such problems are not in demand.
such groups of cases were identified when cases were formed and sent to the editorial office at the executive authorities. We do not take into account those who went to fight in the Donbass before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as well as those who fight as part of PMCs – we know about the Wagner PMC magazine.
Paratroopers, motorized riflemen and small first-aid kits
Examining the list of confirmed casualties, we noticed that 20% – that is, one in five of the confirmed deaths – served in the airborne troops.
Another 18% of all those killed were in the composition of motorized rifle troops. Observers note that it is these units of Russian troops that usually place the bulk of the burden on large counter-military operations.
The very high casualty rate among paratroopers and motorized riflemen may also be due to problems in the remote air force and a poorly established system for evacuating the wounded from the front line.
“This is rarely talked about, but the level of medical care for soldiers, their equipment for quick and competent assistance to the wounded on the battlefield, and a really working evacuation system play a huge role in the war. Chechnya has only confirmed this.
Continue to receive information about the meetings of world pilots. Burials of 29 military pilots (including attack aircraft and aircraft and helicopter flight mechanics) are known. These are piece specialists and the elite of any army. The training of one pilot can take up to 10 years and costs from 3 to 7 million dollars.
In the list of exceptions that were found, 63 representatives of the special forces detachment, including 20 GRU fighters. Among the dead are lieutenant colonel of the FSB special forces “Alpha” and four fighters of the Russian Guard detachment “Vityaz”. These units are considered among the strongest in Russia.
Army – employer
Most of the collected dead come from depressed or semi-depressed regions of Russia. total losses are reported in Dagestan (146 deaths) and Buryatia (105 deaths);
Only three people are known to have died in Moscow, albeit from several capitals of the past: almost 9% of the Russian population.
“The army is an important employer for those who make money impossible. Hiring in the army gives you a stable salary and security,” Professor Natalya Zubarevich, an expert in the field of socio-economic development of regions, explained earlier to the BBC.
Coffins with the military who died in Ukraine come not only to the regions of Russia, but also to the countries of the former USSR.
The BBC is aware of four Russian army soldiers detained in Tajikistan. Two coffins were taken to Kyrgyzstan. Three more were buried in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia.
Observers note that now (unlike in the early 2000s), service in the Russian army does not give people from post-Soviet countries the opportunity to obtain Russian citizenship under a simplified scheme. The army remains an elevated employer for some gatherings, with others signing contracts at the choice of propaganda.
How do we see the decline
In Russia, every day more and more new names of the dead and photographs from the funeral are registered. the number of names is called the heads of the Russian regions or representative district administrations, local media and educational institutions where the dead previously studied.
The BBC and a team of volunteers are evaluating this data and adding it to the list we have been keeping since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We do not take into account the media about dozens of reports, and sometimes about hundreds of victims, if they do not contain specific information about names and surnames. We also did not observe the appearance of mercenaries, the so-called Wagner PMCs.