Russian troop deaths rise by 25pc in second year of conflict
DEATHS of Russian soldiers rose by a quarter in the second year of its “meat grinder” war in Ukraine, with reports that the toll passed the 50,000 mark.
More than 27,300 Russian troops died in the second year of the conflict in a sign of the price paid in blood by Moscow for its illegal territorial gains.
Russia’s tactics have been likened to a meat grinder over a disregard for soldier’s lives, as it orders wave after wave of men forward.
Mediazona, an independent media group, BBC Russian and volunteers have been counting deaths since the start of the invasion in February 2022.
They reported the increase of almost 25 per cent after scrutinising open source information from official reports, social media and newspapers, even noting names on new graves in 70 Russian cemeteries.
Aerial photos showed that graveyards have been expanded to make space for soldiers killed in what the Institute for the Study of War described as “ineffective human-wave style frontal assaults” in battles for the cities of Vuhledar, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
The 50,000 death toll is eight times higher than the only public confirmation of fatality numbers from Moscow in September 2022 but is likely to be smaller than the true amount.
The analysis does not include deaths of Kremlin-controlled militia in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
The BBC estimated that at least two in five of Russia’s dead soldiers were not involved in the military before the war. Volunteers, civilians and prisoners have been recruited and their lack of experience makes them prime candidates for the simplistic meat grinder tactic.
Prisoners were recruited for the Wagner group of mercenaries, until the failed mutiny led by its boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. Russia has continued the prisoner policy since.
Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed. A Russian strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv yesterday killed 11 people and wounded 20 more.