Russian President Vladimir Putin inadvertently indicated on June 5 that Russian forces may be losing 20,000 troops a month. If this is accurate, it is equal to or slightly below the number of new personnel that Russia reportedly generates per month, reported News.bg, citing a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Putin inadvertently suggested that approximately 5,000 Russian servicemen are killed in combat in Ukraine each month, further suggesting that approximately 15,000 Russian servicemen are wounded in combat, assuming a standard three-to-one wounded-to-killed ratio .
ISW cannot confirm these figures, and the apparent inadvertent admission does not serve as a clear statement of Russian casualties in Ukraine. However, the number suggested by Putin is somewhat in line with Ukrainian reports of Russian casualties. Ukrainian ground forces commander Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Pavlyuk said on May 2 that Russian forces were losing about 25,000 to 30,000 personnel killed and wounded per month.
Deputy head of Ukraine's Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR), Major General Vadim Skibytsky, reported on January 15, 2024 that Russia is hiring about 30,000 personnel per month. Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic and Technological Analysis and a member of the civilian advisory board of the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), similarly stated in mid-April 2024 that current Russian cryptomobilization efforts generate approx. 30,000 new employees every month.
Russian officials are reportedly worried ahead of an expected Russian offensive in the summer of 2024, and it is unclear whether the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has maintained the level of around 30,000 it reportedly had in January and April 2024. Pavlyuk said in early May 2024 that Russian forces intended to raise about 100,000 more for operations in June and July and another 300,000 by the end of 2024.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 516,000 Russian soldiers have been eliminated on Ukrainian soil since the beginning of the full-scale war. This data has not been independently verified.
"Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way."
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 7, 2024
Sophocles
The combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to June 7, 2024. pic.twitter.com/3mrYLf4nLU