How strong are the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine?

Russia is considered to be the second strongest military power next to the United States but the country’s poor military performance in Ukraine has raised some major questions. 

Foremost among those questions is the current size and strength of the Russian military after it's been locked in over a year and a half of brutal warfare that’s proved quite costly. 

We know from open-source intelligence by the Dutch firm Oryx that Russia’s lost 12,087 military vehicles and pieces of equipment since its troops were ordered to invade Ukraine. 

The latest estimates of total Russian combat losses in Ukraine by the Ukrainian General Staff put the Kremlin’s killed soldier count at 268,140 as of the 9th of September 2023. 

American officials have been a little less generous in their total combat losses for Russia and noted that Moscow has only suffered about 120,000 soldiers killed in the war so far. 

That number was reported by the New York Times in mid-August alongside the roughly 170,000 to 180,000 Russian soldiers that had been injured or wounded in the conflict. 

However, even after experiencing such heavy losses, Russia still probably has an extremely formidable force operating inside of Ukraine considering Moscow’s recent army reforms. 

Shortly before the turn of the year, the Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said the Kremlin was planning to drastically increase the size of the country’s military forces.  

The number of soldiers would be increased from one million servicemen to one-and-a-half million in order to bolster Vladimir Putin’s fledging special military operation in Ukraine. 

The New York Times estimated that Russia had almost triple the number of soldiers in its military than Ukraine with 1,330,000 active duty, reservists, and paramilitary forces. 

However, not all of those soldiers would be fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine and it is difficult to know just how strong Russia’s military forces in the country are at present. 

In April, leaked classified documents from the United States dated from February and March showed that American officials believed Russia had committed 527 of 544 of its available battalions to the fight in Ukraine according to a report from CNN. 

The intelligence noted that 474 of those available battalions were already fighting in the country. Global Security noted a Russian battalion could consist of anywhere between 250 and 1000 men, meaning Moscow’s force ranged from 131,750 to 527,000. 

Russian forces likely don’t have the maximum number of men fighting in the country but one Ukrainian intelligence official recently went on the record with Interfax-Ukraine and noted Russia had amassed an occupation force of over 420,000 soldiers in the country. 

“The Russian Federation has amassed over 420,000 troops in our temporarily occupied territories and on the Crimean Peninsula,” the Deputy Chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Vadym Skibitskyi said according to a translation from Ukrainska Pravda. 

Skibitskyi added that the number of soldiers he quoted did not include members of the Russian National Guard nor other special units or private security forces working with Moscow to support the occupation of Ukraine. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

The Deputy Defence Chief also said that Russia had a very powerful contingent fighting in Ukraine that consisted of innumerable weapons, vehicles, and missile systems, so it’s likely Russia still does have an extremely formidable force still fighting in Ukraine.