In 2024 he suffered 45,287 casualties among his ranks

In An ongoing war It is difficult to calculate the exact loss figure of one side and another. Especially if the two parties avoid, with strategic sense, to disseminate the number of dead or injured military. However, according to a recent joint investigation of the Russian service of the BBCthe Mediazona independent medium and a network of volunteers, last year was the most lethal for the Russian army since the beginning of the large -scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In total, it is estimated that At least 45,287 Russian soldiers They lost their lives in 2024 in the front. This is triple what registered in The first year of the conflict.

Since February 24, 2022, when the Kremlin troops crossed the Ukrainian border and began to indiscriminately bombard the neighboring country, the number of casualties has become one of the most sensitive – and controversial indicators – of the human cost of war. Because Moscow, which took to recognize that there was a war, keeping official silence about the balance of its dead, the work of independent organizations allows to draw a more precise, although inaccurate image.

The evolution of the conflict in 2024 has been marked by a slow but sustained advance of the Russian lines, especially on the Eastern Front. Unlike the great assaults of the first year – as the battle of Mariupol or the failed offensive on Kiev – the current phase of the war is fought to Palmo, with a very high human cost for each kilometer won. According to the analysis, based on open data, Russian forces have suffered an average 27 casualties per square kilometer of Ukrainian territory captured in recent months. The Russian region of Kursk is also included here, where last summer kyiv launched a large -scale incursion and took control of much of the territory.

The most paradigmatic example was Bakhmut, where in 2023 the longest and longest battle was fought to date. However, The 2024 computation It has already far exceeded the figures of that confrontation, which suggests that wear is constant and, in many cases, unsustainable.

Researchers have documented the names of 106,745 Russian soldiers Deaths from the beginning of the invasion, using open sources as records of cemeteries, commemorative monuments and published obituaries in social networks or local press. Even so, the report authors themselves recognize that this figure only reflects a part of the real total. Estimates of military experts place the coverage of this database between 45% and 65%, which would raise the total number of deaths to a fork that goes from 164,000 to 237,000 troops, collects the BBC.

Beyond the figures, the impact of this human bleeding already It is perceived in the different layers of Russian society. Forced enlistment, prison recruitment campaigns and the intensification of patriotic propaganda reflect a military machinery that needs to be constantly recovering to sustain its offensive. All this happens while Moscow denies it and the media, subject to military censorship or directly blocked by the Government, do not inform about it, according to complaint Reporters without borders (RSF) in your latest report.

For its part, Ukraine tries to contain pressure and reorganize its defenses, aware that wear, although it slowly advances, may end up being decisive. Even more if it is considered that the peace negotiations that the former US president Donald Trump claims to have promoted have not even managed to begin. According to the latest information that comes from the front of official sources and military bloggers, Ukrainian forces have tried this week to repeat their incursion are August 2024 raid in Kursk.

A 2025 even worse

This 2025 has not started well for the occupation forces. In fact, according to British Intelligence Servicesthis year it could end up becoming the most lethal for the Kremlin troops, since the high number of casualties among its ranks is not being corresponded to significant advances in the front.

“In what we have been in 2025,” says the British Defense Ministry in its evaluation, published in its social network X, “Russia has been unable to translate these casualties so constant and large in significant advances within Ukraine.”

In its last evaluation of this Saturday, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense is valid for the estimates of the General Staff of the Ukraine Army, which point to about 950,000 dead and injured among Russian ranks From the beginning of the invasion.

Likewise, the British authorities give the information that there are 1,200 Russian casualties a day since last April. Less than on March 1,300 or 1,600 in late 2024, but “still at the cusp within the general context of the conflict,” says Europa Press.