Russia may have lost up to 728,000 soldiers in Ukraine - The Economist

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the human losses of the aggressor country Russia may exceed 720 thousand people. Hundreds of thousands more could have been seriously injured, preventing them from returning to service.

The most notable spikes in Russian losses occurred during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 and after the battles for Avdiivka and Chasiv Yar. This was reported by The Economist.

It should be noted that the data does not include Ukrainians recruited by Russia from the occupied territories. Also, this figure does not take into account the occupiers who were seriously wounded and cannot return to battle.

The media noted that the calculations are based on documents from the US Department of Defense. This data suggests that the losses of the Russian army by mid-June 2024 could have ranged from 462,000 to 728,000 people. Such losses significantly affect the demography of the aggressor country.

The largest losses were among people aged 35 to 39, 27,000 of whom are estimated to have been killed between February 2022 and June 2024. But as a percentage of the Russian male population, the losses among people aged 45 to 49 were the greatest. Recent estimates suggest that approximately 2% of all Russian males aged 20 to 50 may have been killed or seriously wounded in the war in Ukraine.

It is noteworthy that Russia's losses in Ukraine since 2022 eclipse the number of casualties in all its wars since World War II combined. However, Western officials and analysts suggest that the heavy losses are unlikely to cause manpower problems in Russia in the short to medium term. In particular, U.S. officials estimate that Russia is capable of recruiting 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers per month.

As a reminder, the Russian authorities are forcing migrants to participate in the war against Ukraine as part of the Russian army. Out of about 30,000 foreigners who have recently received Russian passports and have not registered for military service, Moscow has already sent a third to the war zone.

As reported, Russian propagandists complain that mobilized soldiers receive insufficient training before being sent to war in Ukraine. Some invaders are trained for less than 14 days.

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