The Russian military lost more than 400 tanks and nearly 30,000 soldiers in December according to recent data released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These figures were recorded during the 22nd month of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has reportedly lost 359,230 troops, though this number could not be independently verified. In addition to tanks and soldiers, Ukraine’s forces were able to destroy or seize 533 Russian artillery systems last month.
Last week, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported that the average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine in 2023 has climbed by almost 300 compared to 2022. The increase is partly attributed to Moscow’s mobilization of troops and its alleged transition to a “low quality, high quantity mass army.” If the current rate persists until 2025, the invading forces are expected to see more than 500,000 troops killed or injured in Ukraine. This would be way more than the 70,000 casualties suffered by the Soviet Union during the nine-year Soviet-Afghan War. The UK MoD stated, “It will likely take Russia five to ten years to rebuild a cohort of highly trained and experienced military units.”
