Report of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the “SVO” in Ukraine. 1058th day of the war

Report of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the “SVO” in Ukraine. 1058th day of the war

On January 16, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Defense presented a report on the successes of pro-Russian forces and the Russian army waging war against Ukraine. Let us recall that in the Russian Federation this war, which has been going on for 1056 days, is called a “special military operation.”

Experts from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) and other independent military experts give an extremely low assessment of the reliability of the reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense, including on the losses of the Ukrainian side. Let us note that pro-Russian military experts do not trust these reports either. However, we believe it is important to publish the contents of these documents, as this may be required in the future for comparative analysis.

The reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense are quoted verbatim. These documents are stored in our archive.

According to the report, “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat the formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. Units of the North group of troops defeated the formations of a tank, a heavy mechanized, four mechanized, two air assault brigades, a marine brigade and three territorial defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in areas of the settlements Viktorovka, Guevo, Gornal, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Nikolaevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Pogrebki, Sverdlikovo, Sudzha and Cherkasskoye Porechnoe The enemy’s counterattack was repelled by operational-tactical, army aviation and artillery fire, enemy personnel and equipment were hit in the areas of the settlements of Bondarevka, Zamosc. Zaoleshenka, Braid, Round, Loknya, Martynovka, Mirny, Yuzhny, as well as Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, Vodolagi, Zhuravka and Miropolye in the Sumy region. During the day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 210 military personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, an armored combat vehicle, six vehicles, a US-made M777 howitzer were destroyed. eight mortars. In total, during the fighting in the Kursk direction, the enemy lost more than 52,330 military personnel, 305 tanks, 231 infantry fighting vehicles, 170 armored personnel carriers, 1,567 armored combat vehicles, 1,486 vehicles, 367 artillery pieces, 44 multiple launch rocket system launchers, including 13 HIMARS and six US-made MLRS, 16 launchers anti-aircraft missile systems, eight transport-loading vehicles, 93 electronic warfare stations, 14 counter-battery radars, four air defense radars, 30 units of engineering and other equipment, of which 15 engineering obstacle clearing vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing installation, as well as eight armored repair equipment evacuation vehicles and a command and control vehicle. The operation to destroy Ukrainian Armed Forces units continues.”

According to independent observers, the Russian Ministry of Defense greatly overestimates the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Confirmed losses of the Russian army and pro-Russian military structures in Ukraine (we are talking about verified data from open sources collected by the editors of Mediazona and the BBC) amount to 84,800 people killed (by famous names) or about 120,000 (by inheritance cases).

Wall Street Journal loss estimate (as of September 2024): about 200 thousand killed and 400 thousand wounded Russians; about 80 thousand killed and 400 thousand wounded Ukrainians.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky stated on December 8, 2024 that since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, 43,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed. Russian losses, he said, amounted to 198,000 killed and more than 550,000 wounded.

According to the independent resource UA Loses, which takes into account all those killed on the Ukrainian side, indicating their names and other data, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian army (February 24, 2022), about 62 thousand Ukrainian military personnel have died.