On the 94th day of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian officials announced the results of the war. On May 31, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that the number of Russian troops that the Ukrainian army had "killed" since the war began, finally exceeded 30,000, reaching 30,500. Ukrainian President Zelensky also announced that the Ukrainian army would give major damage to the Russian army, and a large number of Russian troops were killed in the wilderness, saying that "Ukraine does not want to be covered by Russian corpses, ( Russian ) If you don't want to die, withdraw your troops as soon as possible."
Ukrainian Ministry of Defense excitedly announced that in the battle that lasted more than three months, the Russian army had lost 17 battalion-level tactical groups (BTGs) on the battlefield, which accounted for 20% of the 90 BTGs mobilized by the Russian army at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The number
sounds terrifying, because the number of people in a battalion-level tactical group (BTG) is more than 1,000, and 17 are lost. Wouldn’t the Russian army really be killed?
In fact, the loss of the army is not this concept. Generally speaking, if more than 20% of the casualties of a unit (including death, injury, patient, captured, missing, etc.) or damage to technical weapons (including damage, sending for repair, abandonment, destruction, etc.), it can be determined as "loss", or lost combat potential. Under normal circumstances, troops with such losses need to retreat for rest.
For example, there are 1200 people in a BTG, and if 240 people are killed, injured and captured, it is considered to be a "lost". The Russian army's 17 BTGs lost about 4,000 to 5,000 people. This number is not terrifying, but is a bit underestimated.
(The accompanying picture is a proportional chart of the number of people buried in various regions of Russia produced by BBC. It can be seen that there are more soldiers killed from Siberia , Far East and Central Asia.)
Currently, obituaries have been issued and funerals have been held in Russia. It can be confirmed that 3,052 Russian officers and soldiers have been killed. According to a long investigation report released by the BBC Russian branch on May 30, it counts in detail the situation of the release of obituaries and funerals for Russian officers and soldiers in Russia since the war began on February 24. As of May 29, 3,052 Russian officers and soldiers were confirmed to have held funerals and issued obituaries.
This data is very detailed and comes from the compilation of information about sacrificial people disclosed in various parts of Russia. All statistical lists are based on publicly determined sources, and also include dialogues with the families of the victims. But it does not include the undisclosed sacrifices. The last time the Russian side officially announced the number of casualties was on March 25, when 1,351 Russian troops were killed.
In the 3052 confirmed obituaries and funeral information of the Russian army, it mainly includes Russian regular army (Navy and Air Force) and Russian special forces and military intelligence personnel. In addition, there are 119 obituaries from the Russian National Guards, and 81 obituaries from military volunteers and some of the Chechnya Guards.
Among the 3052 deaths counted by the BBC Russian branch, more than 18% of the fallen victims were officers. This means that one in every five dead people are Russian officers, which also reflects the fine tradition of Russian officers leading by example.
Among the officers who died in battle, 152 were senior officers (major to general), and 405 were junior officers (lieutenant and warrant officer).
On the list of 3,052 deaths in the Russian army, 3 were generals, including 16 colonels, 46 lieutenant colonels, 87 majors, 405 lieutenants and warrant officers, and the number of soldiers was 2,495.
Of course, these numbers are just statistics on the number of people who have released official obituary information, but the actual number of casualties must be higher than this number. In addition, some soldiers have not been included in the statistical list, such as missing (such as the crew of the Moscow missile cruiser ), confirmed that they were killed but not found (such as the tank crew member with the turret exploded), and confirmed that the body was preserved by Ukraine but the Russian side has not received it yet. Ukraine said that all the remains of the Russian army who were not taken away by the Russian army were loaded into a refrigerated train, and hundreds of Russian remains were stored near Kiev alone.
In addition, hundreds of Russian soldiers were captured.There are also some that have no obituaries issued in remote areas or have no information yet.
According to the military statistics of the fallen soldiers, about 20% of the fallen soldiers belong to the Russian Army's motorized infantry units, and 19% of the victims belong to the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV), with a number of up to 580 people, most of whom died in the battle near Kiev.
Russian Aerospace Forces have 37 pilots killed, including the Aerospace Forces and the Air Force. In addition, 119 Russian special forces members were killed, including the famous intelligence brigade of the " Gruu " and the "Alpha" special forces. For example, in March this year, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Vladimirovic Klyukov, who was confirmed to be killed in the Russian Federation Security Bureau, was affiliated with the "Alpha" team at the Russian Special War Center. The number of the dead in the battle is similar to the post of the Russian army's standard , Motor Infantry Brigade . If the casualties ratio of 1:2.8 of the last time announced by the Russian army, there should be about 8,500 Russian officers and soldiers injured. With hundreds or more than 1,000 missing and captured people, the total number of casualties in the Russian army is about 11,000 to 12,000. This means that the Russian army lost a complete Mofan Division in the three months of war.
There is another armed force that has no statistics, and Donetsk and Lugansk local armed forces are not on this statistical list. The troops of these two states are nominally "independent", their equipment is relatively backward, their technical and tactical levels and training are insufficient, and it is said that the casualties are extremely heavy, which may be twice the number of Russian soldiers killed. As of May 26, Donetsk reported 2,340 deaths and missing persons, while Lugansk reported 600 deaths. However, the outside world generally believes that the number of casualties between the two enemy armed forces is likely to be more than 5,000.
If Donetsk and Lugansk local armed forces are added, the total number of Russian casualties should be about 8,000. According to the proportion, 220,000 people should be injured, and the total number of casualties may be about 30,000. This is indeed a very heavy loss.
, while the military intelligence departments of the United Kingdom and the United States estimated that the Russian side had more casualties. As of the end of May, the United States and Britain believed that the Russian army (including the Russian regular army, the Chechen Guard, the Donlu army and the Wagner mercenaries) had at least about 15,000 soldiers killed, and believed that the Russian army killed more than the total number of deaths in the Soviet army in Afghanistan. In the 10 years of the Afghan war, 14,490 Soviet soldiers were killed.
Therefore, the most outrageous thing is the Ukrainian statistics. Ukrainian side believes that the number of deaths in the Russian army exceeded more than 30,000, which is no matter how you look at it, it looks like the number of deaths of the Ukrainian army itself.
