More than 5,000 Russian officers have died since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Among them are hundreds of colonels and lieutenant colonels, as well as at least 10 generals. This is reported by the BBC, writes UNN.
Based on open data, the BBC, together with the publication "Mediazona"*and a team of volunteers, managed to establish the names of 108,608 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More than five thousand of them are officers, including 10 generals and 524 people with the rank of lieutenant colonel and colonel
In particular, according to the information, the most serious loss for the Russian army was the loss among junior officers. In the first year of the invasion, every fifth dead person we identified was a commander, and most of them held the rank from lieutenant to captain. They are responsible for managing platoons and companies at the front, due to the lack of an effective sergeant corps in the Russian army.
Junior officers had to manage tactical actions at the lowest level, against the background of the fact that the Russian army lacks highly qualified and empowered sergeants who perform this role in Western armies
According to the data confirmed by us, the number of losses among junior officers is now approaching 4,000 people.
At the same time, according to the media, the Russian army and especially the officer corps have shown the ability to quickly learn and recover losses. But in the case of officers, the people who replace the dead commanders often do not have the same level of knowledge and skills.
Therefore, due to the acute need for junior commanders, Russia mobilized reserve officers, some of whom fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria. This made it possible to quickly fill gaps in command positions, saving time for more training of young officers in military schools.
Later, the share of officers in the total number of losses decreased. If at the beginning of the war their share reached 20%, then later - as complex tactical operations involving commanders of elite units were curtailed - it decreased to 10%. By the spring of 2025, the share of officers in the total number of losses decreased to 2-3%.
As reported, this is due to a change in tactics. In addition, the main method of filling losses is the large-scale recruitment of volunteers who serve as privates and die many times more often than commanders.
During the war, 144 colonels and 380 lieutenant colonels of the Russian army have already died. Many of them commanded special forces units and elite regiments and died in the first months of the invasion - sometimes due to mistakes, sometimes due to a lack of basic medical care.
In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost at least 10 generals killed.
Some of them died in the first months of the war, being close to the front line. Later, the command staff began to die as a result of missile strikes, accidents in the rear and even assassinations.
For example, on December 17, 2024, the head of the radiation, chemical and biological protection troops, Igor Kirillov, was killed in Moscow near his house. A scooter stuffed with explosives was remotely blown up near the entrance of the general when he was leaving the building.
Also, three former Russian generals died while being in the status of convicts. All of them were serving sentences for bribes and went to war from various colonies. The death of several more Russian generals is being challenged and has not been confirmed on the basis of independent sources.