Russia's high casualty count is putting pressure on the country's military medical sector and has likely caused a "shortage" of medical personnel, the British government said on Wednesday.
Russia has sustained more than 735,000 casualties since February 2022, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, according to figures from Ukraine's military. Newsweek has yet to verify these claims and reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Western estimates typically come in slightly lower than Kyiv's tally, although battlefield casualties are very hard to pin down. However, the nearly three years of Europe's largest land war since World War II have exacted a grim toll on both sides. The Wall Street Journal reported in mid-September that the combined casualty count for Ukrainian and Russian forces had reached approximately 1 million.
Roughly 500,000 Russian personnel listed in Ukraine's numbers were wounded, the British government said.
"It is almost certain this scale of casualties continues to strain the Russian Military Medical System at all levels of medical care, causing significant logistic problems and resulting in a shortage of medical personnel," said the U.K. Defense Ministry.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine offer up regular updates on how many fighters in their own ranks have been killed or injured. Ukraine is also thought to have sustained heavy casualties.
Moscow and Kyiv have both grappled with how to refill their exhausted ranks while avoiding deeply unpopular moves such as mobilization or further lowering conscription ages.
Moscow is known for its "meat grinder" assaults in Ukraine, racking up very high casualty counts with infantry-led attacks to overwhelm defenses.
Russia is thought to be able to pull around 30,000 new recruits into the military each month. However, this now falls short of backfilling the number of casualties Ukraine has consistently reported among Russia's ranks.
Russian independent outlet Mediazona and the BBC's Russian service have confirmed at least 79,819 Russian military deaths between February 24, 2022 and November 21, 2024.
Earlier this month, Ukraine said Russia had sustained 1,770 casualties in a single day, marking the highest number of killed and wounded in a single day in more than two-and-a-half years of war. October marked the highest monthly Russian casualty figures of the war, the head of the British armed forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, told the BBC on November 10.
On average, Moscow racked up around 1,500 casualties each day throughout October, Radakin said.
Russia does not offer regular updates on purported Ukrainian casualties, but it said on Wednesday that, over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine had sustained approximately 1,535 casualties across Ukraine and 250 in Russia's border Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in early August. Newsweek could not independently verify this.
Ukraine's persistent targeting of Russian troops with drones, plus a shortage of armored vehicles, means Moscow struggles to quickly evacuate wounded soldiers, the British Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"This almost certainly increases the likelihood of more serious injuries and higher rates of mortality for those who are eventually evacuated through the medical system," the U.K. said.
Russian independent outlet Astra shared footage earlier this month, purportedly showing a military riot in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk after Russian soldiers told a military police officer that they could not return to front line fighting because of their injuries. The soldiers broke windows at the military barracks and demanded medical care, the outlet reported. Newsweek could not independently verify this.
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