Economist: Russian losses in Ukraine are more than in all wars since the Second World War

This is the data cited by the Economist, having analysed leaked data from the US Department of Defence.

The journalists assume that for every dead Russian soldier there are about three or four wounded. Thus, by mid-June 2024, between 462,000 and 728,000 Russian military personnel have lost combat capability. This exceeds the number of Russian military personnel involved in the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The publication also adds that unnamed French and British officials estimate that about 500,000 Russians have been seriously wounded or killed by May 2024.

Russians aged between 35 and 39 suffered the highest casualties, of whom up to 27,000 died during the entire invasion period. In percentage terms, the greatest losses were suffered by the male population of the Russian Federation aged 45 to 49. A notable increase in Russian casualties was recorded during Ukraine's counter-offensive in the summer of 2023 and after the battles for Avdeevka and Chasov Yar.

The total losses of the Russian Federation in Ukraine since 2022 exceed all the country's losses in wars since World War II. However, this is unlikely to affect the Russian army's ability to attract new soldiers in the short to medium term. According to the New York Times, Russia is capable of recruiting between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers each month.

Ukraine's losses

President Volodymyr Zelensky on 25 February for the first time voiced the losses of the Ukrainian army: according to him, 31 thousand Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in two years of full-scale war. He did not name the number of wounded so that Russia would not know how many people Ukraine has on the battlefield. According to the calculations of the "Book of Memory of the Fallen for Ukraine" project, made public in mid-November 2023, at least 30 thousand Ukrainian fighters died from 24 February 2022. Up to 100,000 more military personnel have been injured, but most are on duty or will soon return to duty.