The huge number of soldiers lost by Russia in Ukraine this year has been revealed by an officially disclosed report

Moscow has made constant but reduced progress on the battlefield, using a tactic that brought him very big losses, say the analysts quoted by Politico.

Russia lost 281,550 soldiers in Ukraine in the first eight months of this year, according to a document that, according to Ukrainian secret services, contains Russian disclosure data.

The list, published on October 6, shows an amazing level of losses for minimum winnings on the battlefield, writes Politico. According to this information, 86,744 Russians were killed, 33,966 are missing, 158,529 were injured and 2,311 were captured.

The Russian Independent Mediazona publication showed skeptical about some of these figures. Together with the BBC, Mediazona carries out a project to identify the Russians killed in the fight since the beginning of the war and, until now, has appointed over 134,000.

The difficulty of identifying missing soldiers means that the figures of the two media institutions will be lower than a general estimation of the victims.

Mediazone noted, among other things that the number of over 5,000 Russians killed on the front line along the Japanese river would be too large. However, the Ukrainian army said that some Russian forces in that region have been redeemed in eastern Ukraine, where some of the bloodiest struggles have taken place this year.

The Frontelligence Insight group, which does analyzes using public information, told Politico that the drained document seems to be quite accurate and corresponds to the group's own estimates.

“The figures I had at that time are closely aligned with those in the document, suggesting that the published number falls within the expected interval,” said Frontelligence Insight.

Other online information groups that study the war agree.

Russia does not save his wounded

The statistics highlight the wasteful way in which the Kremlin leads the war and the impact of the war with drones that the Ukrainian forces take against the Russians.

“Due to the lack of a normal evacuation system of the wounded from the battlefield, there are only 1.3 wounded soldiers for each dead soldier. This indicates a low level of survival of the wounded, who are poorly trained in tactical medicine and are usually abandoned without help after injury,” the report shows.

It was prepared by the telephone line of Ukrainian military information called “I want to live”, destined to the Russian troops to surrender, and accompany the Russian data.

In other wars, the ratio between the dead and injured is closer to 1 to 3, which emphasizes that Russia does not save its soldiers.

Russian losses are estimated at over one million dead, injured and missing since the Kremlin launched the widespread invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian General Staff reported. Kiev estimates that Russia loses about 1,000 soldiers per day.

In February, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski estimated that over 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed from the beginning of the war and 390,000 were injured.

The figures of Ukraine are smaller because it has been largely defensive, while attackers tend to suffer greater losses. Ukraine also made greater efforts to save and treat injured soldiers.

“In terms of losses, Russian losses are three times higher than ours,” Zelenski said in a meeting with journalists in August.

Russia advances but slowly

Russia managed this year to advance on several points of the front line, through a strategy that exhausted Ukrainian forces.

“This year, the front line has been expanded by about 200 kilometers. In addition, we have 2,400 kilometers that do not carry out combat operations, but we must keep the troops there,” said General Oleksandr Serski, the supreme commander of the Ukrainian army, at the end of September.

“Regarding the general situation on the front, it remains difficult. The enemy continues to advance in the main directions, especially in the directions of Pokrovsk and Dobropillia. In other directions, the situation is characterized by low intensity fighting operations. In general, the situation is under our control,” said Serski.

Ukraine has admitted that the recruitment of fighter force is a problem.

Russia also faces its own problems. Some regions pay the recruits a registration bonus of up to 2.5 million rubles (26,000 euros), but the reports on the mortality rate and the terrible conditions reach Russia, which makes recruitment difficult.

The Institute for the Study of the War, a Think-Tank in Washington, estimated that Russia recruits 31,600 soldiers per month, but suffers on average 35,193 victims per month.

“The Russian forces seem capable and willing to bear these victims, despite the limited tactical progress,” the ISW concluded.