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The Main Issue Hidden Behind the Russian Army’s Losses
The human cost of war and the growing crisis facing Putin’s Russia.
In her article, Infantrymen Reduced to Rubble: What We Know About the Russian Army’s Losses, Olga Ivshina, a correspondent for BBC News Russian, highlights that “in the fifth year of the Russia–Ukraine war, the Russian military force suffering the heaviest losses is not its tank or missile units, but its infantry. Motor rifle brigades, which bear the main burden of the Russian army’s offensive operations, are losing enormous numbers of soldiers, yet Moscow continues to recruit new personnel and send them to the front to replace those killed.”
Working together with Mediazona and a team of volunteer researchers, the BBC has identified 285,023 Russian military personnel whose deaths have been confirmed through open sources. This is not the full number of actual losses; it is a record only of those whose deaths could be verified with documentary evidence. According to the investigation, the combined number of confirmed deaths among the five motor rifle brigades that have suffered the heaviest losses has reached 15,312. These units have been at the forefront of the Russian army’s offensive operations since the second half of 2023.
The list of the heaviest losses is headed by the 15th Motor Rifle Brigade, known as the “Black Hussars”…
