UK discloses estimate of Russian losses in war against Ukraine

19 November, 2023 Illustrative photo of destroyed Russian armored vehicles. Photo from open sources. At the request of John Healey, MP and representative of the Ministry of Defense, the UK government disclosed an estimate of the Russian Federation's losses in the war against Ukraine.

The UKdefencejournal reported on this. "We estimate that approximately 302,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands more have already deserted since the start of the conflict," Heappey said. It is worth noting that the figures of personnel losses are quite comparable to the estimated losses of Russians published by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In addition to the regular army losses, the British MP was interested in the losses of Russian private military companies and volunteer formations, but no specific figures were available.

Illustrative photo of the cemetery of Wagner PMC mercenaries. Photo from open sources.

"The number of personnel killed serving in Russian private military companies (PMCs) is not clear. Russia has utilized several PMCs and volunteer units in Ukraine to augment Russian military forces, but the deaths of personnel from these organizations are not reflected in Russian official military death tolls," Heappey noted.

It should be added that one of Wagner PMC's Telegram channels published an approximate number of casualties as of May 20. The statement pointed out that about 20,000 people were killed and about 40,000 were wounded. Additionally, Healey sought details on the destruction of Russian military equipment.

"We also estimate that over 7,117 Russian armored vehicles, including nearly 2,475 main battle tanks, 93 fixed-wing aircraft, 132 helicopters, 320 unmanned aerial vehicles, 16 naval vessels of all classes, and over 1,300 artillery systems of all types have been destroyed since the start of the conflict," Heappey said.

Illustrative photo of the wreckage of a Russian fighter jet. Photo from open sources.

The published figures are close to those published on the OSINT resource Oryx, which only counts losses confirmed by photo or video evidence. Militarnyi has repeatedly reported losses of manpower, armored vehicles, aircraft, and ships of Russian troops.

For example, on November 18, it was reported that a Russian assault group was neutralized, and on November 17, a large number of armored vehicles were destroyed.