Ukrainian Army Takes Over 1300 Casualties in Just One Day’s Fighting

The Ukrainain Army lost more than 1,300 servicemen during hostilities with Russian forces in just one day from August 15-16, according to a report by the Russian Defence Ministry. These losses included 170 casualties in the responsibility area of the Russian Army’s Battlegroup North, up to 230in the zone of BattleGroup West, over 220 in that of the Battlegroup South, over 400 in the Battlegroup Centre area, over 215 in the zone of the Battlegroup East, and more than 80 personnel in the zone of the Battlegroup Dnepr. These losses were incurred as the Russian Army has made steady advances into Ukrainain held territory, with Battlegroup West capturing the villages of Kolodezi in Donetsk and Voronoye in Dnepropetrovsk during that time. These mounting losses have occurred as concerns have risen regarding the Ukrainain Army’s ability to sustain hostilities in the face of extreme casualty rates and equipment losses.

Ukrainain conscript units have suffered extreme casualty rates at times approaching 80-90 percent, with the Wall Street Journal being among the sources to report that the Ukrainian Army has relied on recruiting poor men from villages and sending them to the frontlines with just two days of training. The casualty rates seen have been a primary factor forcing desertion rates to particularly high levels, according to reports rom the Financial Times among other sources, with footage of increasingly extreme methods used both by conscription officers to recruit new personnel, and by draftees to escape the front lines having circulated increasingly widely on the Internet from late 2023. Draft dodgers interviewed have citing the extreme casualty rates on the front lines and the lack of preparation that personnel received as reasons for their actions. The life expectancy for personnel on high intensity frontiers has at times been as low as just four hours, according to reports from Western observers on the ground.

In April 2023 Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom Vadim Pristaiko revealed that Kiev was concealing the full number of casualties suffered in the war, stating that “it has been our policy from the start not to discuss our losses,” but that “when the war is over, we will acknowledge this. I think it will be a horrible number.” Western sources have since then continued to widely report on the extreme casualty rates suffered by Ukrainian conscript units and the lack of training they have had. Personnel shortages have resulted in a growing reliance on foreign combatants to support the Ukrainian war effort, including contractor personnel from Brazil and Colombia, the Polish Volunteer Corps, British Royal Marines, the American Forward Observation Group, and a wide range of other foreign units. The significant presence of foreign contractors has been reported from multiple battlefields from Kursk to Bakhmut. While reports indicate that foreign personnel have been treated far less expendably than Ukrainian conscripts, they have at times also suffered significant casualties as the Russian Armed Forces have singled out facilities hosting them for targeting.