Ukraine war: Russia losing close to 1,000 soldiers every day, UK intelligence says

Russia’s daily losses on the Ukrainian battlefield have been ticking upwards since 2022, according to UK intelligence

Russia’s reliance on attritional warfare could come at the expense of its economy and labour market

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Smoke rises from a Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainian forces. According to UK intelligence, Russia is losing close to a 1,000 troops a day on the Ukraine battlefield. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:17pm, 8 Apr 2024

Losing nearly a thousand soldiers a day isn’t stopping the Russians from launching mass attacks on Ukraine, the UK’s defence ministry said in an intelligence dispatch on Sunday.

“Since the February 2022 invasion, Russian forces have sustained 658 losses a day on average,” the UK’s defence ministry said in a post on X, which collated the number of Russian casualties and injured.

“Each year has seen a rise in the daily average loss rate from 400 in 2022, to 693 in 2023, to 913 through the first quarter of 2024,” the post continued. “The increase reflects Russia’s ongoing reliance on mass to sustain pressure on Ukrainian front lines.”

The intelligence dispatch noted that the number of daily Russian losses experienced a slight dip in March. The drop in numbers, the UK defence ministry said, “corresponds with fewer reported attacks over the past month.”

“The reduction in Russian offensive operations highly likely reflects a series of factors: a period of rest and refit following the capture of Avdiivka, and intent to reduce death notifications during the Russian elections,” the post said.

This isn’t the first time the number of Russian casualties have come under the spotlight. Russia’s reliance on attritional warfare meant that it has weathered significant losses since it invaded Ukraine.

In January, a Ukrainian commander told CNN that Russia was mounting their assaults with “non-stop” human-wave attacks.