Photo: ROSTISLAV KOSHELEV/AFP/Getty Images
For: The opinion Updated 07 Jan 2023, 20:20 pm EST
The figures for Russian soldiers killed during the Ukrainian war remain an enigma, with Ukraine reporting one number and Russia reporting another; but a group of journalists calculated the number of dead Russian conscripts in more than 500.
According to the joint calculation of the BBC (Russian service), the Russian media Mediazone and a team of volunteers, as of January 6, 539 Russian conscripts have been killed in Ukrainenot counting the almost 100 dead in Makiivka.
“Based on publicly available data, we have managed to establish the names of 500 recruits who have died in the combat zone on the territory of Ukraine since October”, read the report published by the BBC in Russia.
But recruits have also died in Russian territory and it is estimated that there are around 39most often, supposedly, due to heart problems and as a result of accidents or due to alcohol abuse.
According to the count, the number of Russians dying in conscription centers continues to rise. However, the actual casualties among conscripts they may be much higher, as many reports of soldiers killed in Ukraine since October do not indicate their status.
According to the recruits, their units continue to suffer heavy losses for various reasons such as the intense artillery bombardment from the Ukraine, the poor coordination of actions between the different units of the Russian army, as well as insufficient preparation.
In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported that 300,000 conscripts joined the Russian Armed Forces during the “first wave” of mobilization, and 150,000 Russian recruits were reportedly sent to Ukraine.
More than 100 thousand Russian soldiers dead, according to Ukraine
About 100,000 Russian soldiers reportedly died on the battlefield during the military operation in Ukraine so far, according to figures released by the Ukrainian government.
That number reveals that Russian forces have lost an average of about 10,000 soldiers per month in the 10 months that the current war has been taking place on Ukrainian territory.
By contrast, Moscow has so far only confirmed the death of less than 6,000 soldiersplus fewer than 4,000 additional fighters from Russia’s “people’s republics” created in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts after the 2014 invasion.
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