Half of Russian Losses Could Have Been Prevented With Proper First Aid—U.K.

Up to half of Russian troop deaths in Ukraine could have been avoided if they had received adequate medical treatment, British defense officials have said.

Since the start of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine 17 months ago, Russia's forces are thought to have suffered around 400 casualties a day, causing what the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) has called a "crisis of combat medical provision."

Monday's U.K. MOD update cited a claim by the Kalashnikov company's combat medicine training division that it was likely that "up to 50 percent of Russian combat fatalities could have been prevented with proper first aid."

The leading causes of preventable fatalities and amputations were slow evacuations and "the inappropriate use of the crude in-service Russian combat tourniquet," the MOD said.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry about the update, which tends to emphasize Russian setbacks and Ukrainian gains.

The claims come as an investigation by independent Russian language news outlets Meduza and Media Zone estimated that around 47,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war.

Analyzing published obituaries, mortality data from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, and National Probate Registry records, the investigation found that by May 27, 2023, between 40,000 and 55,000 Russian men under the age of 50 had died fighting in Ukraine.

When counting those troops wounded so seriously they did not return to military service, Russia's total casualty numbers were at least 125,000, they said. This figure does not include missing or captured soldiers, or Ukrainian nationals fighting with Russian proxy forces based in Donetsk and Luhansk, the outlets said.

Meduza reported the numbers are "remarkable not just because they signify the tens of thousands of men Vladimir Putin has sent to die in a war of aggression but also because the authorities have labored tirelessly to conceal the invasion's true and growing costs to Russians themselves."

Moscow has not updated the official toll of Russian soldier deaths since September 2022, when its defense ministry claimed only 5,937 troops had been killed.

Information about casualties is classified by presidential decree in Russia, and Russian social media users who reveal casualty rates face prosecution.

Ukraine puts the toll of Russian fatalities much higher, saying on Monday that Moscow's forces had lost 234,480 troops since the start of the war, including 440 over the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, a database by independent monitors collaborating with journalists at Mediazona and the BBC found that nearly 27,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine. The figure was obtained from publicly available information such as obituaries.