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The Russian Ministry of Defence has been notoriously protective of data on the casualties suffered during Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. The Kremlin has not provided a reliable update on the number of Russian soldiers killed in the conflict since March, when authorities reported more than 1,300 fatalities in the early weeks of the invasion. Dr Patrick Bury, a senior lecturer in security at the University of Bath, spoke to the Express.co.uk to discuss some of the methods Moscow’s military leaders have used to disguise the true level of casualties sustained in the war.
Dr Bury told the Daily Express: “The Russian army have mobile incinerators. Only a percentage of the casualties that are killed come back.”
He added: “I have also read first hand accounts that said when a Russian soldier is reported killed, the unit still posts them as missing.
“One, they don’t have to count it as a casualty and, two, the family don’t get paid the bounty which would be due for a dead relative.”
President Putin has declared families of Russia’s National Guard who are killed in Ukraine will receive a payment of five million roubles, roughly equivalent to £79,000.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence has reported 56,300 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began in March.
Biden’s Administration has placed the figure at as many as 80,000 Russian troops either killed or wounded since the full-scale attack on Ukraine was launched.
In July, Head of MI6 Richard Moore estimated some 15,000 Kremlin soldiers had been killed in the conflict, although he added the number was likely a “conservative estimate”.
Mr Moore added: “These are poor kids from rural parts of Russia. They are from blue-collar towns in Siberia. They are disproportionately from ethnic minorities. These are his cannon fodder.”
Read more: Putin’s ‘desperate’ mobilisation risks ‘mutiny’ on frontlines
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