Russia suffers significant single-day casualties, with more losses expected

On September 10th, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that Moscow suffered the loss of nearly 1,400 soldiers in a single day. This high casualty count from a 24-hour period on the frontlines serves as another remarkable indication of the intense and brutal fighting occurring.

Russia suffered 1,380 casualties over a single day of fighting, which brought Moscow’s total casualty figure in the conflict up to 627,790 personnel since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 according to the General Staff's estimations Newsweek reported. 

Whether or not the Russian casualty figures estimated by the General Staff are correct is a difficult question to answer since the Kremlin doesn’t publish any information on the losses its armed forces have suffered in the conflict. 

Ukraine is also one of the two belligerent nations involved in the fighting, so any figures published by the nation should be taken with a grain of salt. However, third-party groups have come to similar conclusions about Russia’s losses. 

One of the most reliable sources on Russian losses is the UK Ministry of Defence, which has been publishing daily updates about the ongoing conflict and often tackles casualty figures while offering the British government's perspective on the war. 

In the UK Defence Ministry’s September 5th update on the war, it noted that Russia had likely suffered upwards of 610,000 casualties since the beginning of the conflict in 2022, and it also commented on Russia’s high daily casualty rate in August. 

“The average daily Russian casualties (killed and wounded) in Ukraine has increased in August 2024 to 1,187 per day, according to Ukrainian General Staff,” the update noted before it assessed that Russia had likely seen roughly 610,000 casualties. 

Why Russian casualties were so high in August isn’t difficult to figure out. The Defence Ministry’s update reported Moscow was suffering a high number of killed and wounded military personnel because of the Kremlin’s ongoing offensives near Pokrovsk. 

“The August 2024 increase in casualty rate is almost certainly due to Ukraine's Kursk operation and continued pressure on the Pokrovsk axis. Russia continues to rely on mass to mitigate their lack of personnel and equipment capability,” the update reported.

“Although Russian pressure on the whole frontline will continue over the next month, their capability constraints will likely continue to reduce their ability to exploit any tactical successes into wider operational gains,” the war update added. 

The UK Ministry of Defence also predicted that Russian forces would continue to suffer average daily losses above 1,000 soldiers per day in September as Russia’s operations continued across the frontlines from Kursk in the north to Robotyne in the south. 

At the beginning of August, the UK Defence Ministry broke down several months of loss figures and noted that Russian daily casualty rates were falling. May 2024 saw per day losses of 1,262 while June 2024 saw per day losses of 1,140.  

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