Russia has lost over 200 military pilots in full-scale war against Ukraine
Photo: Collage / Channel 24
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost at least 216 military pilots, each of whom requires a training period of no less than six years and over $3 million in spending.
BBC reports that the Russian army lost at least 62 military pilots in 2023.
Another 13 Russian military pilots died in 2023 within the territory of Russia itself during the coup attempt by the leader of the PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The publication says that Russian aviation suffered more simultaneous losses only on the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Overall, the publication managed to identify the names of 45,123 Russian occupiers who have died in the war in Ukraine since February 2022.
Among them, at least 6,614 were killed from October 2023 to February 2024, precisely during the period when Russian troops were advancing near Avdiivka and neighboring areas of the eastern Donetsk region.
The publication highlights that these are only the losses confirmed by open sources. According to the BBC's estimation, the actual number of Russian casualties could be twice as high.
The BBC reached this conclusion by studying the circumstances at cemeteries in 70 settlements across Russia.
What we know about Russian losses on the front
On February 20, the Ukrainian forces eliminated over 1,100 occupiers. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian losses in live force have already exceeded 406,000 soldiers.
In December of last year, British intelligence reported an uptick in daily losses among Russian military personnel in the war against Ukraine in 2023. If this trend continues, the total number is expected to surpass 500,000 by 2025.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated in late November that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian army has suffered considerable losses in its conventional armed forces, including hundreds of aircraft, thousands of tanks, and over 300,000 military personnel.
Since the commencement of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the aggressor country has seen a loss of at least 3,079 officers. Overall, the identities and demise of 43,014 Russian military personnel (excluding militants from Donetsk and Luhansk regions) have been identified and verified.
