As Russia suffered record losses in Ukraine in 2024

Last year, it was the most deadly for the Russian forces since the beginning of a full -scale war in Ukraine: at least 45,287 people were killed.

This is almost three times more than in the first year of invasion and far exceeds the loss of 2023, when the longest and deadly battle of war took place in Bakhmut.

At the beginning of the war, the losses occurred in the waves during the battles for key places, but in 2024 there was an increase in the dead per month, when the front line slowly threw forward, which allowed us to establish that Russia lost at least 27 lives per kilometer of the Ukrainian territory.

The BBC Russian Service in cooperation with the independent media Mediazona and volunteer team processed data with open source from Russian cemeteries, military memorials and obituaries.

So far, we have identified the names of 106 745 Russian soldiers killed during a full -scale invasion of Ukraine.

A valid number is clearly higher. Military experts estimate that our number can cover 45% to 65% of deaths, which means 164 223 to 237 211 people.

On February 20, 2024, he was the most deadly for Russian forces in 2024.

Among the victims were Aldar Bayire, Igor Babich and Akunyan Rustamov, who were in the 36th motorized infantry brigade when four Ukrainian rockets of Himar got into a training ground near the city of Volnovakh in the occupied Danzim.

They are ordered to line up the medal ceremony. Sixty -five troops were killed, including their commander of Colonel Musayev. Tens more were injured.

Bayrau, 22 years old, and from Buryatia in eastern Siberia, studied food specialists, but was drafted into a compulsory military service and then signed a contract to become a professional soldier.

In February 2022, he went to fight in Ukraine and was part of the Borodian battle during the promotion of the brigade to Kiev in March 2022. The city was almost completely destroyed. Ukrainian sources say Russian soldiers participated in the shooting of civilians.

Akunyan Rustamov, 31 years old and from cheat in Siberia, worked as a welder after serving a mandatory period in special forces. It was mobilized during a partial project in October 2022.

Unlike Rustamov, 32 -year -old Igor Beichch took volunteers to go to war. He worked with adults and children diagnosed with cerebral palsy, helping them with physiotherapy until April 2023.

In total, 201 Russian soldiers were killed on this day, according to our data.

A few hours after the strike on the training ground, the then Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu met Vladimir Putin to give him the news about the military success from the front line.

There was no mention of a training attack, and there were no words of the Ministry of Defense in daily reports.

Rustamov’s sedentary acne stated that she had already buried three close family members during the war. “In December 2022, my husband died on February 10, 2024, my godfather. And on February 20, my half will. From one burial to the next.”

In our analysis, we preferred accurate death dates for soldiers. If it was unavailable, we used the burial date or death date.

In the first two years of the war, 2022 and 2023, the losses of the Russians moved in the wave picture: heavy fighting with high victims alternated with periods of relative peace.

For example, in 2023, most of the victims occurred since January and March, when the Russian forces tried to capture the cities of the vollader and the Bakhmut in Donetsk.

According to our estimates, Russia lost at least 17,890 soldiers in the first year. This number does not include losses by two proxy Russia in the occupied eastern Ukraine.

In 2023The number increased to 37 633.

In 2024There was no period that showed a significant drop in victims. Bloody battles for Avdiev and Robatin were accompanied by an increase in attacks on Pokrovsk and Torrets.

In August 2024, Russian recruits were killed when Ukrainian troops invaded the border into the Kursk region. From 6 to 13 August, 1226 Russian soldiers were killed.

However, the most severe common loss occurred during a slow Russian promotion in the east between September to November 2024, according to US military analyst Michael Kofman.

“The tactics emphasized repeated attacks with scattered attacks, using small infantry fire teams that increased common victims compared to the area received,” he explained.

After almost two years of intensive fighting, the Russian troops seized the material and technical center of the volodor in Donetsk on October 1, 2024.

According to the US Institute for the Study of the War (ISW), from September to November 2024, Russian troops captured 2356 square kilometers of Ukraine.

Even then, Ukrainian troops did not collapse at the front.

The cost of this promotion was at least 11 678 Russian military deaths.

Actual loss numbers are probably higher. We only take into account the soldiers and officers whose names appeared in the publicly available obituary and the dates of death or burial that fell during this period.

Overall, in 2024, according to ISW, Russia captured 4,168 square kilometers. This means that 27 Russian soldiers came for each square kilometer, and it does not include the wounded.

Russia has found ways to replenish its exhausted forces.

“The Russian set also increased in the second half of 2024 and exceeded Russia’s losses, which allowed Moscow to create additional formations,” says Michael Kofman.

In three Russian regions, one -time payments were increased by soldiers who signed new contracts. Fighting salaries for volunteers five times higher than the average wage in most regions.

We also put as a volunteer who signed up to avoid criminal prosecution, which was allowed by law in 2024.

Volunteers became the fastest -growing category of victims in our calculations, making a quarter of those we have identified.

In 2023-2024, thousands of volunteers who signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense were sent to the front line only 10-14 days. Experts note that such minimal training has dramatically reduced their chances of survival.

In one of the Russian Republic, Bashkortostan has the largest number of casualties, and 4836 confirmed deaths. Most were from the countryside, and 38% went to fight without military experience.

A one -time payment for the signing of the Russian Army’s contract in UFA is 34 times more than the average salary of the region 67 575 rubles (600 pounds).

The calculation of death from open source data will always be incomplete.

This is because the bodies of a large number of soldiers who have died in recent months can still be on the battlefield, and their search is a risk to service soldiers.

The real number of those killed for the Russian forces increases significantly when you turn on those who fought with Ukraine as part of the self -proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

The assessment of the obituaries and reports on the search for the contact fighters testifies to 21,000 to 23,500 people, may have died until September 2024.

This will lead to a total number of deaths up to 185,000 to 260 700 troops.