Confirmation from the BBC reveals that Russia’s military casualties in Ukraine have exceeded 50,000. Over the past year, amidst Moscow’s implementation of its “meat grinder” tactic, the death toll increased by nearly 25% compared to the previous year.
Since February 2022, BBC Russian, the independent media group Mediazona, and volunteers have meticulously tracked these casualties.
The identification of soldiers has often relied on new graves in cemeteries. Utilizing a variety of sources, such as official reports, newspapers, and social media, our teams compiled data revealing that over 27,300 Russian soldiers perished in the second year of conflict.
This significant loss of life underscores the high human price paid for territorial gains. In response to the BBC’s report, Russia has deferred casualty information inquiries to the Moscow defense ministry.
The term “meat grinder” epitomizes Moscow’s strategy of relentless waves of soldiers advancing to exhaust Ukrainian forces and reveal their positions to Russian artillery.
The disclosed death toll, surpassing 50,000, dwarfs Moscow’s sole official acknowledgment in September 2022 by eightfold.
However, this tally likely underestimates the true number of Russian fatalities, as it excludes militia deaths in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cited legal restrictions on disclosing casualty information during the “special military operation” as grounds for the defense ministry’s exclusive authority on the matter.
Ukraine has been reticent about disclosing its own battlefield losses, with President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioning 31,000 Ukrainian soldier deaths in February, though estimations based on US intelligence suggest higher figures.
The latest data compiled by the BBC and Mediazona underscores the grave human toll of Russia’s evolving frontline strategies.
The graph illustrates a significant increase in Russian military deaths in January 2023 during a large-scale offensive in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
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Instances of “ineffective human-wave style frontal assaults” in the battle for Vuhledar led to substantial casualties, as noted by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Further spikes in casualties occurred in spring 2023 during the battle for Bakhmut, where the involvement of the Wagner mercenary group aided Russia’s capture of the city.
Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, estimated losses around 22,000 during this period.
The capture of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine last autumn also resulted in a surge of military fatalities.
Volunteers, in collaboration with the BBC and Mediazona, have documented new military graves in 70 cemeteries across Russia since the conflict began, indicating a significant expansion of graveyards, as evidenced by aerial imagery such as that of Bogorodskoye cemetery in Ryazan.
(BBC)
