Russia‘s losses in Ukraine have rocketed “so fast” in recent weeks that official counters are struggling to keep up, according to local outlets.
Most Western nations estimate that the Russian Army has lost hundreds of thousands of troops since the start of the war in February 2022.
A joint investigation conducted by the independent Russian outlet Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service suggests that Russia lost more than 60,000 soldiers in recent weeks.
Mediazona reported that “the number of obituaries is rising so fast that [they] can’t keep up with them.”
They noted that the increase in losses is “much more significant” than expected, with more than 2,000 killed in just the final weeks of July.
The investigation confirmed the death of 61,831 Russian troops but noted the actual number could be considerably higher as officials are lagging behind with processing death notices.
Ukrainian authorities reported that Moscow had lost 1,180 soldiers on just August 5, bringing their estimate of total Russian casualties to 582,910 since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.
The British Ministry of Defence reported their analysis suggested Russian casualties had dropped from a maximum of 1,262 in May to 1,140 in July, suggesting the consolidation of troops in the Kharkiv area had contributed to the drop.
Moscow has not provided an updated list of casualties since September 2022, when it claimed just under 6,000 troops had been killed.
Putin has rarely addressed reports about Russian losses but on June 5 described them as “irretrievable.”
He also claimed the Ukrainian death and casualty rate was one to five in favour of Russia. Ukraine in February reported 31,000 of its soldiers had been killed in the conflict.
The analysis came as Putin slammed Kyiv for what he described as a “large-scale provocation” as his officials asserted that they were fighting off cross-border raids for a second day.
Putin met with his top defence and security officials to discuss what he called the “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons.”
He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The fighting is about 320 miles from Moscow.
Army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin at the meeting via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle and more than 200 wounded, Russian news agencies reported.