102,600 Russian Soldiers Killed, 3,000 Tanks Destroyed Since Start Of War

Russia has lost around 102,600 military personnel and 3,016 tanks between the start of its invasion of Ukraine in late February and Monday, data provided by the Ukrainian military showed.

Russia's losses within the same period also included 6,017 armored fighting vehicles, 1,996 artillery systems and 283 aircraft, among other pieces of military equipment, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its most recent casualty report.

Most of Russia's recent losses were supposedly sustained in the directions of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, cities located in Ukraine's partially occupied Donetsk province, as well as Kupiansk in Kharkiv.

Russia last provided an official death toll from the war in September when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died in Ukraine up to that point.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, revealed during a television interview that Ukraine has lost up to 13,000 of its troops in the war, Ukrainian media reported on Dec. 1.

Both Russia and Ukraine could be underreporting their losses, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense (MoD) suggested.

Gen. Mark Milley, the most senior military officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, claimed in November that the two sides had already suffered around 100,000 casualties each at the time.

Russia could have around 120,000 military casualties by spring, according to the Poland-based Warsaw Institute think tank.

Russian infantry and airborne forces sustained the highest number of casualties in the invasion of Ukraine, an investigation conducted by the BBC's Russian service and independent Russian news outlet Mediazona found.

Soldiers of the Russian Airborne Forces, or the VDV, were deployed extensively during the initial stages of the war, securing key locations such as airports and assaulting Ukrainian cities.

However, Russia has since lost 90% of its best paratroopers, according to journalist Christo Grozev, who is part of the Netherlands-based fact-checking and open-source intelligence group Bellingcat.

It could take years before Russia can reconstitute its depleted VDV units, the British MoD claimed last month.

Russia has also reportedly seen a significant number of casualties among its junior officers, which could be contributing to more losses.

Half of Russia's competent ground-fighting company commanders in Ukraine are either dead or wounded, the Center for European Policy Analysis claimed.

"[C]ompany commanders lead the fight by synchronizing fires, movement, and supporting units. A company commander is also the highest-level officer who knows each soldier in their unit and can drive the execution of a mission by his presence," the Washington, D.C.-based think tank explained in a statement released Monday.

"The absence of competent tactical leadership will lead to increased losses, and a more sequential fight as integration fails to work between combined arms, and exposes moving infantry and armor to Ukrainian fire," the organization added.