According to data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the Russian army has lost more than 50,000 soldiers in the ongoing special military operation, which is considered as a very large number.
The military departments or intelligence departments of Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom believe that the Russian army lost about 30,000 soldiers. The reason for this gap is mainly due to different statistical methods. The statistics of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense are more from front-line information, while the United States and the United Kingdom are mainly based on the intelligence they are able to collect.
As for the suspicion that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is falsely reporting the results of the war and exaggerating the losses of the Russian army, some analysts believe that this is impossible in practice, because the results announced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense are not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for themselves supporters see that its level of “honesty” will directly affect its supporters’ economic, military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, just as the West must monitor the use of weapons when it aids Ukraine: despite sympathy, the West has not fully trusted the Ukrainian Government, which is one of the reasons why Ukraine has not been able to join the European Union and NATO. The Ukrainian government has failed to meet the access requirements of these two organizations in many aspects.
As for the Russian Ministry of Defense, as early as March, it has stopped publishing the loss figures of the Russian army. In the daily battle report issued by the spokesman, Lieutenant General Konashenkov, only the loss figures of the Ukrainian army were taken. If these losses are counted, the Ukrainian army has already been wiped out at least twice by now. It is because of this performance that analysts believe that the losses of the Russian army are likely to be huge, even bigger than the figures announced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Recently, the Russian opposition Mikhailo Khodorkovsky released a report from the Russian Ministry of Finance. This statistical report completed in late August gave the Russian army’s “special military operations” in the death toll numbers. According to this report, the Russian government needs to allocate 361 billion rubles for the pensions of the fallen Russian troops, an average of about 7 million rubles per person, and a total of 48,759 dead. In addition, the Russian Ministry of Finance also requested an additional 271 billion rubles in the second half of the year and 724 billion rubles next year to meet the pension requirements, excluding those for the injured. It should be noted that the Russian government has not acknowledged the authenticity of this report.
The situation of the Russian troops participating in “special military operations” in Ukraine is extremely complicated. In addition to the regular Russian troops, there are also the National Guard, special forces of the security sector, Donbas militia, Chechen troops, “Wagner” and other mercenaries. There are even special police units. Note that the losses of the latter are not counted. In other words, even if these people are killed, they are not even counted. According to the reports of the Russian Ministry of Finance, the actual loss of the Russian army is even higher, even exceeding the data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
With the Ukrainian army’s recent counter-offensive, the losses of the Russian army are still increasing rapidly. The number of daily losses has even exceeded 650 people, and the loss of more than 4,000 people in a week. Although the total size of the Russian army is over one million, it can actually be used not much. The army has a total of 400,000 people. The conscripts cannot go to Ukraine because of domestic legal problems. The main reason for the shortage of troops is that without general mobilization, Russia’s war capability is actually far less powerful than most people think.