Conflict Intelligence Team uncovers Russia’s losses during its military operation in Ukraine
A group of independent investigators from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) , upon analyzing a tender issued by the Ministry of Defense of Russia, has come to a conclusion that in 2014, Russian military human losses amounted to 218 persons.
This is an exceptionally high number, which, according to the CIT researchers can be explained by the involvement of the Russian military in combat actions in eastern Ukraine, the CIT said in a research summary published on its website.
CIT analyzed the tender issued by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for insurance of military personnel in 2018-2019, published in the Russian Vedomosti newspaper on December 4th. According to the newspaper, the tender unveiled the number of human losses in the Russian army in the period from 2012 to 2016 which amounted to 3,035 Russian servicemen who died in the aforesaid period from different causes.
CIT said the document also stated the total of insured members of the Russian military. This number allows for the calculation of the actual frequency of occurrence of the insured events, including a death rate or an injury rate among military personnel. Having applied a formula and upon analyzing the results the CIT team found out that in 2014 the Russian army suffered more deaths and injuries than in the prior or later periods.
“We think this indicates that in 2014 the higher death and injury rate is attributed to events that led to the number of deaths being considerably higher than the number of injuries, which we think can be reasonably explained only by one factor - combat activities,” the CIT report said.
In particular, the CIT investigators calculated that in 2014 there were 218 Russian servicemen killed and 654 wounded. CIT suggested that the losses attributed to the involvement of the Russian military in combat activities in the southeast of Ukraine.
Bellingcat, an international research network that also studied the conflict in eastern Ukraine, claimed that approximately 10,000 Russian servicemen had participated in the fighting in the Donbas.
The Ministry of Defense of Russia repeatedly dismissed involvement of the Russian military in the armed conflict in Ukraine. Russian top leadership, including President Vladimir Putin, made statements about “volunteers” from Russia who fought in the southeast of Ukraine “because they felt like doing it.” But it has been established that Moscow was lying several times as documents were found on killed or captured soldiers fighting alongside militant forces revealing their identity as Russian servicemen.
As it was earlier reported, the International Criminal Court in The Hague found evidence of an international armed conflict in the Donbas.