WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
Last year brought the heaviest losses for Russian forces since the invasion of Ukraine began. According to open data, at least 45,287 Russian soldiers were killed - almost three times more than in the first year of the war and significantly more than in 2023, when the bloodiest battles near Bakhmut were fought, writes the BBC.
Unlike the beginning of the war, when losses occurred in waves during the battles for key cities, in 2024 the number of deaths grew from month to month. The advance of the Russian army was slow, and the price of each kilometer conquered was high - an average of 27 Russian soldiers killed for every kilometer of Ukrainian territory.
The research was conducted by journalists from the BBC Russian editorial office and the independent portal Mediazona, with the help of volunteers, analyzing obituaries, military cemeteries and monuments across Russia. So far, they have managed to identify the names of 106,745 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. But the real number of dead is much higher. Military analysts estimate that the collected data covers between 45 and 65 percent of the actual casualties, which would mean that between 164,000 and 237,000 Russian soldiers died in total, the BBC reports.
The worst day of 2024 was February 20, when 65 soldiers were killed in Ukrainian shelling of a military training ground near Volnovakha in the occupied part of Donbas. Among them were members of the 36th motorized brigade Aldar Bairov, Igor Babikh and Okhunjon Rustamov. Their commander, Colonel Musaev, was also killed, and dozens were wounded.
