At least 21,800 Russian soldiers are said to have died since the siege of Moscow in Ukraine began on February 24 last year. The figure comes from the daily bulletin of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The report also mentions 873 tanks destroyed, along with 2,238 armored vehicles, 408 artillery systems, 147 multiple rocket launchers and 69 anti-aircraft systems. Russian forces also reportedly lost 179 planes, 154 helicopters, 1,557 cars, 8 naval units, 76 fuel tanks and 191 drones. The data released by the Kremlin are, of course, very different. On March 2, Moscow announced that only 498 soldiers had been killed, while Western media, Kyiv and NATO had already put the number of victims at between 7,000 and 15,000.
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The numbers of the missing
However, two days ago, near the Kremlin, Russian news site Readovka published an announcement by Moscow’s Defense Ministry, stressing that “13,414 Russian soldiers have been killed and another 7,000 are missing” in Ukraine. These figures quickly disappeared from the internet, but were released by the Belarusian website Nexta.tv, which published a screenshot of Readovka’s post with a photo of Russian defense spokesman Igor Koneshenkov. Details of Russian losses in Ukraine were reportedly revealed during a behind-closed-doors meeting at the Defense Ministry. Readovka then published a new post accusing the Ukrainian armed forces of conducting a hacking attack. But data leaks are nothing new. On March 21, Komsomolskaya Pravda, another pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper, published a number of Russian casualties, saying “9,861 dead and 16,153 wounded.” A number that has always been attributed to the Department of Defense. The article was later deleted by Pravda itself. In this case, too, “cyber sabotage” was reported.
Russia, the losses are huge
However, Russian losses were enormous. They were provoked by poor tactical decisions and underestimation of the capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the beginning of the war, Moscow was sure that the invasion would be quick and effective. It was February 24th and the Russian army numbered 280,000 soldiers while the Ukrainian numbered 125,600 men. Indeed, points out Michael Clarke, professor in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, “The Kremlin underestimated the number of soldiers needed to force the country into submission.” In addition, thanks to the recruitment of reservists and the influx of volunteer foreign fighters, the Ukrainian army has grown. Russian troops were sent to war unprepared, untrained and poorly equipped. Experts also point out that Russia’s attempt to seize the Donbass, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where pro-Russian rebels have been active since 2014, is likely the result of a change in tactics after “the first attack from Kyiv failed”. he explained the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies FMES, Pascal Ausseur.