On Russian Casualties

A Russian army sergeant who deserted has provided Radio Liberty with what he says is a database from the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense, containing information on 166,000 wounded servicemen during the ongoing Russia's War on Ukraine. Radio Liberty journalists verified that the data covers military personnel treated in Russian military hospitals from January 2022 to mid-June 2024.

Radio Liberty noted the database does not represent the full number of wounded because it excludes troops who received brief treatment and returned to the front. 

The deserter’s data shows that privates most frequently end up in hospitals. Officers made up 17 percent of all wounded in February 2022, but that figure fell to 6 percent by June 2024. This highlights a critical issue the Russian army encountered at the start of the full-scale invasion: poor communication systems forced junior officers to be at the front lines alongside their units, resulting in many fatalities among that group.

The Defense Ministry archive details injuries sustained by nearly 90,000 privates, 40,000 sergeants, 15,000 corporals, 7,000 lieutenants, 3,000 captains, 2,700 praporshchiks, 2,100 majors, 1,000 lieutenant colonels, 381 colonels, more than 30 major generals, 10 lieutenant generals, and one colonel general. The archive also lists nearly 5,000 naval servicemen. 

From January 2022 to June 2024, the database shows 2,250 soldiers were seriously wounded, 58,632 were moderately wounded, and 80,269 were lightly wounded. However, the deserter told Radio Liberty that hospitals may deliberately underestimate the severity of injuries to expedite soldiers’ return to combat, adding that amputations are the only injuries that reliably keep troops off the front lines. The database reportedly contains data on more than 3,200 amputations.

Radio Liberty found the number of wounded surged during periods of major Russian offensives, including the initial push toward Kyiv, the spring 2022 campaign in the Donbas region, and assaults on Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Another jump in casualties occurred in late autumn 2023, which the deserter attributed to Ukraine’s increased use of FPV drones.

The outlet also reported a rise in frostbite, burns, and mental disorders among Russian troops from November 2022 to March 2023 and again from November 2023 to March 2024.

“Shrapnel wound” was the most common injury cited, with nearly 70,000 cases—more than three times the number of gunshot wounds. Several hundred servicemen were hospitalized for drug or alcohol-related poisoning, according to the database. Fifty-eight of the entries included a diagnosis related to attempted suicide.

Radio Liberty additionally noted that the average age of hospitalized servicemen rose from 28 in February 2022 to 36 by mid-June 2024—an increase of one-third over the period covered by the database. In March 2022, those aged 50 and older accounted for 1.3 percent of hospital admissions, but by April 2024, that figure exceeded 11 percent.