Military Personnel - Casualties
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky provided a figure of 2,500 to 3,000 military personnel dead by mid-April 2022. For the same period, US intelligence agencies estimated that between 5,500 and 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, with more than 18,000 wounded. The Russian estimate of Ukrainians killed in action was more than 23,000 by mid-April.
Investigators from Proyekt [investigative journalists from independent Russian media] calculated 30 June 2022 that, according to Russian Defence Ministry reports, the Russian military have destroyed 39,000 "areas of accumulation of manpower and equipment" and "strongholds" of Ukrainian troops, and have allegedly killed 40,000 servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The publication Proyekt discovered that the Russian army had "destroyed" more aircraft, tanks, armoured vehicles and drones than Ukraine could possibly have, even taking into account supplies from other countries.
On 21st September 2022, Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defense of Russian Federation in his speech announced the official numbers of 61,000 killed AFU soldiers at that moment.
Ursula von der Leyen declared in December 2022 that at least 100 000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the Ukrainian war. Later, she removed her video from Twitter. Ukraine declares that merely up to 13 000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. They say that Ursula presented false numbers and, after she realized her mistake, deleted the video. The number 100 000 has been calculated by the organization Wartears. They have explained in detail the methodology used to calculate the number of Ukrainians killed in action. The estimations were only for the number of Ukrainians killed or captured in action. But a critical error in the model led to estimations of killed in action being 25-30% higher than they should.
The European Consortium for Political Research estimated that s of 23 February 2023 " Russian personnel losses have outpaced Ukrainian personnel losses, with expected loss numbers of 76,687 and 17,223 respectively, as of 23 February 2023. The ratio of casualties to death for Russia and Ukraine are 3:1 and 5:1, respectively. Higher casualty ratios are indicative of better survival rates because they mean fewer wounded soldiers are dying."
U.S. officials estimated in March 2023 that upwards of 100,000 Ukrainian forces had been killed or wounded in the year-long war, including the most experienced soldiers.
In April 2023 dozens of classified US Defence Department documents - maps, charts and photographs - were circulating on the internet. Ukraine's losses - killed and wounded - were estimated at between 124,500 and 131,000 - is also in line with ballpark figures briefed to journalists in recent weeks. The Pentagon said it had "low confidence" in the figures, due to gaps in information, operational security and deliberate attempts, probably by both sides, to mislead.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine lose up to 20,000 soldiers a month, so representatives of the military registration and enlistment offices literally run after each person to hand him a summons. This is reported 11 July 2023 by the British newspaper Daily Mail.
By July 2023, Scott Ritter claimed that over 350,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died and an additional 400,000 wounded. Douglas Macgregor was claiming that "There is so much lying on what's going on in Ukraine, people don't know the truth.. At least 300,000 Ukrainians have been killed, probably closer to 350,000.
The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to Western officials and analysts, have exceeded 150 thousand people killed and wounded since February 2022. This was reported on 11 August 2023 by The New York Times.
In a year and a half of grinding warfare, many of those who volunteered to fight had been killed or wounded. The precise number of Ukrainian casualties is not publicly known, but in an 18 August 2023 report, The New York Times cited US officials it did not name as saying close to 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded -- far higher than the figures that Kyiv had disclosed.
Russian expert Eldar Murtazin , editor-in-chief of the specialized portal Mobile Research Group. He studied the reports of Ukrainian mobile operators, which recorded 1.1 million “silent” SIM cards, which may indirectly indicate the number of deaths on the Ukrainian side. Murtazin cites data from one of the Ukrainian operators, according to which 5.5 thousand SIM cards go silent every week in the east of the country. And this is only for one operator.
On 15 August 2023, pro-Russian US military analyst, former outstanding armor combat commander and leading military tactician Colonel Douglas Macgregor updated his estimate of total Ukrainian combat dead to at least 400,000. Other pro-Russians souces claim that even before the current hostilities began on February 24, 2022, Ukraine’s total population was only 20 million, down from its thriving 50 million when it became independent of Russia at the end of 1991.
Pravda, the Russian newspaper that was once the mouthpiece of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union, published an opinion article 24 August 2023 in which Sergei Frolov reported "According to a military expert, former intelligence officer and special forces officer, retired colonel Anatoly Matviychuk , the irretrievable combat losses of the Ukrainian armed forces during the period of the Russian special operation to protect Donbass amount to about 400 thousand people. If we count the sick and hospitalized, the figure reaches 800 thousand."
Kiev's losses since the beginning of the so-called counter-offensive exceeded 66 thousand people and 7.6 thousand weapons. This was stated 05 September 2023 by the head of the Russian Defense Ministry Sergei Shoigu at a conference call in the department. He stated that the Ukrainian military did not achieve their goals in any of the directions, and spoke about the results of the Army-2023 forum, plans to replenish military transport and long-range aviation, as well as training Suvorovites to use drones.
@MilitaryLabb noted " claims that the Ukrainians have lost between 40,000 and 80,000 soldiers in Robotyne front are mental delusions. At the peak of the Ukrainian offensive on this axis, the Ukrainian army currently has engaged 12 brigades and about 4-5 battalions (not including drone units) along the front line between Kopani and Novopokrovka. It is widely known that most of the Ukrainian brigades did not have the maximum number (4000 or 5000 soldiers) even before the start of the war.
Very little is known about the initial manpower of the brigades that are engaged here, but seeing that for example the 82nd Air Assault Brigade has only 2000 troops, we can say that the other brigades must have something between 3000 and 3500 soldiers. Even taking into account these maximal numbers without considering previous losses, the 12 Ukrainian brigades would have an initial strength of a little more than 40,000 troops (and certainly less than 50,000 troops). If we also count the 4-5 battalions operating on this front, we have about 4000 other troops (800 soldiers per battalion).
So in total, at the peak of their offensive, the Ukrainians have less than (or not more than) 50,000 troops in this part of the front line. If the Ukrainians have lost 40,000 troops, it means that they have lost over 80% of their forces.
Up to nine out of ten Ukrainian army draftees who joined in the last year have been either killed or wounded in action, a senior conscription officer in the country's Poltava Region said, according to local media 15 September 2023. Speaking at a meeting of Poltava City Council, Lt. Colonel Vitaly Berezhny, who serves as acting head of the of the local recruitment and social support center, admitted that local authorities are struggling with their conscription campaign, having fulfilled only 13% of their conscription quota, placing them last in the region. Berezhny was quoted by local media outlet Poltavshina as saying the military urgently needs reinforcements, as “out of 100 people who joined the units last fall, 10-20 remain, the rest are dead, wounded or disabled.”
Kiev does not disclose statistics about its military losses, but according to Moscow’s estimates as 027 September 2023, the number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since the counteroffensive began 04 June 2023 now surpassed 83,000, with at least 17,000 killed in September alone. The latest US figure, reported by the New York Times, is that Ukraine’s military had suffered 70,000 fatalities sine the start of the war, but evidence from a multiplicity of sources pointed Geoffrey Roberts, Emeritus Professor of History at University College Cork, to an estimate of 150,000-200,000 Ukrainian dead. Russia-friendly observers of the war such as Scott Ritter and Colonel Douglas McGregor consider 400,000 a more realistic estimate.
Commenting 06 June 2024 on the battlefield situation, Putin claimed that Ukrainian forces are suffering significantly higher losses than Russian troops, with a purported monthly loss of 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers. He noted the difficulties Ukraine faces in maintaining its military strength, including forced mobilization efforts and reducing the conscription age, allegedly under U.S. pressure. Putin suggested that these challenges highlight the severe human toll of the conflict for Ukraine .
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