The war in Ukraine has proven to be an expensive undertaking for Russia, particularly concerning personnel. Since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has likely lost around 610,000 individuals (both killed and wounded).
This information comes from a report by the UK Ministry of Defence on X (Twitter).
"The tactic based on mass infantry waves has requires Russia to constantly replenish its forces with a steady stream of new recruits," the report notes.
According to British intelligence, the rate of recruiting Russian soldiers in 2024 has slowed compared to the rates achieved in 2023. Russian officials stated at the end of 2023 that the Russian Ministry of Defence was recruiting around 1,600 individuals per day. However, publicly available figures this year indicate that this number is about 1,000 per day. These figures are likely somewhat inflated.
This has led the Russian Ministry of Defence to increase bonuses for enlistment in August 2024, making the recruitment strategy increasingly costly for Russia.
