Russia's Staggering Losses in a Year

Moscow lost more than a quarter of a million troops in 2023, according to the latest report from Ukraine's military which claims that the total number of Russian casualties since February 2022 now stands at 360,010.

On the first day of 2023, Kyiv said that Russian forces had suffered 106,720 losses since the start of the war. The difference between the figures on January 1 2024 and January 1 2023 is 253,290—a daily average of just under 694."

Getting an accurate figure of Russian casualties in what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" is difficult as Kyiv's estimates are often higher than those from other sources. Both sides are tight-lipped about their losses, with Russia not updating its tally since September 2022, which it then put at fewer than 6,000 troops.

This time last year, Ukraine put the total number of Russian losses at 106,720. The difference between that figure and the 2024 assessment is 253,290—a daily average of just under 694.

Kyiv's tally of Russian casualties in December was 29,970, the highest monthly death toll since the war began, the second highest being 28,550 the previous month.

The wording accompanying Ukraine's daily estimate has changed slightly over the last year, from "liquidated personnel" to just "personnel," but Kyiv's numbers follow a year of reports that Moscow's troops were being thrown into attacks that have caused high casualties.

In October, Russia launched an offensive on Avdiivka in Donetsk oblast, which Western analysts have said has caused a large spike in losses. The U.S. National Security Council (NSC) said that by mid-December more than 13,000 Russian personnel had been killed that month. Added to that figure, 220 of Moscow's combat vehicles were lost in the operation around Avdiivka for no discernible strategic gains on the battlefield.

Also in mid-December, a declassified U.S. intelligence report said that Russia had lost 315,000 troops from the estimated 360,000 who took part in the invasion, The New York Times reported.

In mid-November 2023, the British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told lawmakers in the U.K. that around 302,000 Russian personnel had been killed or wounded.

On December 29, a joint project by independent Russian news outlet Mediazona and BBC Russian said that its count of the Kermlin's military's losses in Ukraine had reached 40,599.

This figure is based on verified information from open sources, such as data from cemeteries and public notices and comes with the caveat that the real number of losses is likely to be much higher.

"The year 2023 has become bloodier for the Russian army than 2022," the joint project said, expecting losses for 2023 in the coming weeks to increase substantially when "taking into account the latest bloody assaults." Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email.

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