How many soldiers has Russia lost? Ukraine's top general reveals the data

In an unexpected turn of events reported in August 2024, Ukraine's highest-ranking military leader has confirmed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a surprise offensive into the Kursk region of Russia. The incursion is said to have resulted in substantial casualties, with reports suggesting tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been affected.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote in a November 6th post on his Facebook account that Moscow has suffered almost 21,000 casualties since Ukrainian forces invaded Kursk.

“As of November 5, 2024, nearly three months into the operation, enemy losses in the Kursk direction amounted to 20,842 personnel, including 7,905 killed, 12,220 wounded, and 717 taken prisoner,” Syrskyi explained according to United24.

“During the same period, 1,101 units of enemy weaponry and military equipment were destroyed. These include 54 tanks, 276 armored combat vehicles, 107 artillery pieces and mortars, 5 multiple rocket launchers, and 659 vehicles,” Syrskyi added. 

General Syrskyi also revealed that Ukraine opted to invade Russia as a way to disrupt the planned cross-border invasion of Ukraine's Sumy region by Russia. The preemptive strike was also a means to divert troops from other areas of the front. 

“In May of this year, intelligence confirmed the enemy's plan to launch an offensive in the Sumy direction from Russia’s Kursk region to establish a so-called ‘buffer zone’ in northern Ukraine,” Syrskyi claimed. 

“This was intended as a continuation of the Russian operation in the Kharkiv direction. Therefore, a decision was made to conduct a preemptive offensive operation, shifting combat actions onto enemy territory in the Kursk region,” Syrskyi added. 

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief’s remarks on the casualty figures from the three-month operation in Kursk came at a time when Russia was reportedly reaching a string of new casualty and equipment loss milestones. 

On November 4th, the Ukrainian General Staff claimed in its daily update on Russian losses in the war that Moscow had suffered just 700,000 military personnel losses in the war since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Newsweek reported on November 5th that the open-source Dutch intelligence firm Oryx, which tracks verifiable Russian and Ukrainian equipment losses, estimated that October equipment losses for Russia reached their highest in two years. 

Oryx claimed that Russia lost 695 units of military equipment that were either destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured in October according to Newsweek’s Brendan Cole. 

“Among the lost equipment were 253 infantry fighting vehicles, 103 tanks, and 41 armored personnel carriers. There were also four aircraft, comprising two Sukhoi Su-25 and Su-34 fighter planes, along with a Mi-28 helicopter,” Cole noted. 

While Russian losses were quite high in October, it's likely Moscow’s total equipment losses were higher than what was projected by Oryx, something the intel firm explains on its website is possible because of the nature of its verification process. 

“This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here,” Oryx explained about its equipment loss figures. 

Newsweek reported that higher Russian losses in recent months have likely been due to Russia’s ongoing offensives in Eastern Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk Oblast has also probably played a role as well. 

“Ukraine officially announced carrying out an operation in the Kursk region on August 12 and successfully created a buffer zone within Russian territory as a result of this military operation,” United24 reported about the Kursk operation. 

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