The Telegraph: September was the deadliest month for Russia’s military since the start of the war in Ukraine

10 October, 2024 Graves of Russian soldiers. Frame from the video of the Russian media (losses of the Russian Federation) In September, Russia suffered the largest losses on the front line since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

The Telegraph reported, citing British intelligence, that the average casualty rate for the Russian military rose to a thousand soldiers per day. The average casualty rate for the Russian army rose to 1,271 soldiers killed or badly injured per day. Previously, the highest daily casualty rate for Russian soldiers had been in May, with an average of 1,262 soldiers killed or injured.

September was also the fifth consecutive month that Russian casualties averaged over 1,000 soldiers per day.

Neutralized Russian military. October 2024, Ukraine. Footage from the video of the 54th Brigade

Analysts said that the high casualty rate was linked to Russian mass infantry tactics, often involving "meat wave" assaults where large numbers of troops are sent to storm Ukrainian defensive positions.

The UK MoD said that Russia had now lost nearly 650,000 soldiers since its invasion in February 2022 (including the seriously wounded). Its casualties averaged between 172 and 559 per day in 2022, then peaked at 967 in 2023. According to the information provided by The Wall Street Journal, the total losses of Russia and Ukraine as a result of the hostilities are estimated at approximately one million military personnel killed or wounded.

As of February 2024, official Ukrainian data indicate 31,000 killed soldiers.

A cemetery in the Kharkiv region where fallen Ukrainian soldiers are buried. June 2024, Ukraine. Photo on the topic: Losses / Deaths: kharkiv.eurosolidarity.org

At that time, the President of Ukraine also stated that there were missing persons among the Ukrainian military, but he did not provide any figures.

For several years now, the Russian Defense Ministry has kept all figures on Russian military losses secret.