Estimates of Russian Dead Vary Widely

American Government sources in the Biden Administration have indicated that there have been around 75,000 Russian casualties, those who were killed or injured, since the launch of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Earlier estimates by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had indicated an injury vs death ratio was roughly 1:3, meaning that the estimates from the Biden Administration could be interpreted to mean that there were approximately 18,750 Russians killed versus 56,250 injured.

During testimony last week, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had estimated that there had been around 60,000 Russian casualties, of which, 15,000 were killed and 45,000 wounded.

Last week, the leader of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, estimated that around 15,000 Russians had been killed in the war.

Ukrainian military estimates have approximated that slightly over 40,000 Russian soldiers were “eliminated.” However, it is unclear if this was a total of all casualties, or specifically of those killed in action.

The loss of such a tremendous amount of soldiers, say experts, will undoubtedly cause serious problems in the Russian military. According to the Pentagon, losing 10% of one’s forces makes a unit “inoperable,” and will also contribute to low morale among the troops.

As has been earlier reported, Russia is thought to use mobile crematoriums to destroy the remains of their battle dead in order to disguise the high losses. Likewise, Russia has disproportionately taken soldiers from ethnic minority groups in Central Russia, as well as recruiting heavily among the Russian Far East. Recently, news that Russia may recruit soldiers from among its prison population, and that it had planned to rely heavily on contract soldiers, such as the Wagner Group, were all interpreted as signs that Russia’s leadership was seeking to hide the extent of their military losses from the major population centers, namely Moscow and St Petersburg.

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Diane Francis Interviews Mikhail Zygar, Yaroslav Trofimov on Prospects of Russia’s War on Ukraine

Video discussion with three leading expert journalists on the current situation in Russia’s war against Ukraine republished with the permission of the Peterson Literary Fund.