Russian November Combat Losses Set New Records

The number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded in fighting in Ukraine set a new monthly record in November, and Friday was the Russian army’s single bloodiest day of combat since World War II, kill claim statistics published by the Ukrainian army over the weekend showed.

On Nov. 29 – a day the Russian military launched multiple frontal attacks in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and in Russia’s Kursk province – 2,030 Russian soldiers lost their lives or were severely wounded, data made public by Ukraine’s Army General Staff said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Kremlin forces made minor ground gains over the day and captured three Ukrainian villages, without commenting on losses.

Analysis by the Icelandic military researcher Ragnar Gudmundsson showed heaviest Russian casualties in a single day were less an anomaly and one-time event, than a new peak in continuing record-heavy Russian losses over the month of November.

Other Topics of Interest

ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December, 3, 2024

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

During Russia’s so-far 34-month-old full-scale invasion Ukraine, November 2024 saw six wartime record days of Russian combat losses, of which the Nov. 29 was only the latest highwater mark, Gudmundsson reported in date published on Dec. 2.

The Russian military lost between 9,300-10,900 men a week in combat in Ukraine during the month, a pace of casualties unmatched during the entire war, and the quantity of attempted and successful Russian assaults likewise during November likewise hit an all-war high, data published by Gudmundsson showed.

A Nov. 26 assessment of Russian offensive operations by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that Kremlin forces using for the most part frontal assaults into the teeth of prepared Ukrainian defenses had advanced faster than in any other time during the entire war, excepting late-February and early March 2022, at an average rate of 22 square kilometers a day, or aggregate 574 square kilometers during the month.

That is is far short of the Kremlin’s declared war objectives of placing under Russian control Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in their entirety, and at their present pace of advance, assuming sufficient manpower and equipment, the Russian army might capture one of those regions – Donetsk – only after another 12 months of uninterrupted fighting and probably heavy losses, the ISW report said.

According to Ukrainian army estimates total Russian personnel losses since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine slightly exceeds 750,000 men killed or severely wounded. Over the month November 2024 the central focus of Russian attacks has been in Ukraine’s Donbas region, with the greatest pressure towards the important logistics hub towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove. Another major offensive is in progress in Russia’s western Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August.

Ukrainian milbloggers and combat unit information platforms during November have recorded battle after battle across the front pitting Russian soldiers driving out into the open aboard not just armored fighting vehicles but at times in trucks or four-wheel-drive automobiles, and even riding quadracycles and motorcycles in attacks on Ukrainian positions.

The assaults, based on accounts from both sides, sometimes manage to debus infantry close enough to Ukrainian lines for a close-in ground assault, but often they are cut to pieces by minefields, artillery and especially thousands of FPV drones financed by grass-roots donations and constructed largely by volunteers. Ukrainian drones routinely document Russian soldiers wounded and eventually dying from treatable injuries, because most attacking Russian units seem not to have medics or combat ambulances.

One of the worst Russian tactical defeats in November took place on Nov. 10-12, in Russia’s Kursk region, following an attempted assault by Russia’s elite 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade against positions near the villages of Novoivanovka and Pogrebki held by, among others, Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade, a veteran formation.

The Russian marines drove, in broad daylight, into minefields and were then hit by anti-tank missiles and artillery, after which FPV drones swooped in to set halted vehicles afire and hunt down individual survivors, reports from both sides said. The two marine units together lost more than 20 armored combat vehicles and more than 300 men, in a few hours of fighting, combat accounts said.

The widely read Russian milblogger Dva Mayora (1.19 million followers) on Nov. 15 said of the Russian marines’ defeat: “Vehicles from the 810th brigade drove into a minefield, which had been reported completely cleared. But it turned out the roads actually were heavily mined.”

A smack-talking Nov. 14 statement from 95th Brigade claimed that its soldiers, along with a half-dozen other Ukrainian units in the vicinity, had burnt or knocked out more than 30 Russian combat vehicles and killed at least 500 Russian service personnel in two days of battles.

In a reference to Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in April 2014, the statement said in part: “Two days of active assaults by the Russians did not bring them anything good… Russkies, you need to learn the history of the brigade you are fighting against. The 95th Brigade has been fighting for the integrity of its country since 2014. Glory to Ukraine!”

A Russian marine identifying himself with the call-sign Demid, in a Vblog published on Saturday by the hugely popular pro-Kremlin Telegram news channel War Gonzo (1.1 million followers), said his platoon carriers drove into an ambush during a Kursk region attack on Nov. 11, and of the three BTR armored personnel carriers 25 soldiers in the unit, all three APCs were destroyed and 24 of 25 men died.

Ukrainian defenders waited until the BTRs drove onto mines and blew up, and then opened fired with machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars, he said. Survivors were hunted down by FPV and explosives-dropping drones. Per that account neither medics nor ambulances came to help, but after seven days without food the soldier managed to reach friendly lines.

Some Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces have blamed poor training, weak motivation and little or no value placed on troop survival by Russian commanders for heavy losses. A group of six Russian soldiers recently taken prisoner by Ukraine’s 80th Air Assault Brigade told captors they were felons forced into army service under the threat of years of imprisonment or death, and that training lasted two weeks, during which a convict was allowed a maximum 15 practice shots with his rifle.

“Some people came to the detention center and the boss said that if I don’t sign a contract then I won’t live to see the prison,” an unnamed Russian soldier said in interrogation video published by the 80th on Monday. “They simply give you no choice. You can’t refuse. Either they will extend your prison sentence, or they’ll just kill you somewhere. There are special rooms they take people into. In there they just beat you, they slaughter you. They rape you.”

Kyiv Post could not confirm all content in the video, however, language and comment by soldiers was consistent with past accounts by other Russian soldiers. Ukrainian media on Monday reported the video was authentic and recorded following combat in Russia’s Kursk region.