“Radio Liberty” Received The database of the Foremost Army Medical Administration (GVMU) of the Ministry of Protection of Russia, which comprises information on 166 thousand army personnel handled in army hospitals to start with of 2022 till mid-2024. It was shared by the previous army doctor Alexei Zhilyaev. Journalists confirmed the authenticity of the bottom and analyzed it. We retell the principle conclusions from their investigation.
Who’s Alexey Zhilyaev and the place did he get the bottom of the wounded?
He’s a former commander of the evacuation division of the wounded 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division, who in August 2024 abandoned From the Russian military and filed an software for political asylum in France. The bottom of Zhilyaev obtained as a army doctor: the principle army medical division of the Ministry of Protection sends it to the armies, in order that the wounded who have been departed from their items should not “misplaced”. Zhilyaev means that the database is fashioned on the idea of knowledge from army hospitals.
What information does it comprise?
Knowledge of sufferers of army hospitals in Russia and annexed Crimea from January 2022 to mid -June 2024. It additionally comprises restricted details about the wounded via civilian hospitals, in addition to hospitals within the annexed elements of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson areas and in Belarus. In lots of, however not in all circumstances, the bottom has private information of the affected person, in addition to details about the place of his service, the severity of harm, length and end result of remedy.
Can it consider the full variety of Russian wounded on it?
No. The bottom is incomplete: there aren’t any frivolously wounded, rapidly despatched again to the entrance, and there are additionally no majority of those that underwent remedy in army hospitals of the annexed areas of Ukraine (not counting Crimea) and civil hospitals. “The army falls into civilian hospitals primarily when a“ splash ”happens associated to the activation of offensive actions, the losses develop sharply, and there aren’t any locations within the hospitals,” explains Alexei Zhilyaev.
For sufferers who’re current within the database, all the knowledge shouldn’t be all the time introduced (many would not have the date of beginning, the prognosis, information on the result of remedy, and so forth) – and when it’s, it cannot all the time be trusted (the severity of wounds can typically be indicated erroneously or is an misguided deliberately underestimated).
Most frequently, peculiar. There are nearly 90 thousand peculiar individuals, 40 thousand sergeants, 15 thousand corporators, 7 thousand lieutenants, 2700 warrant officers, greater than three thousand captains, 2100 majorors, a thousand lieutenant colonels, greater than 30 main generals, 10 Lieutenant Generals and one common, -Colonel.
In February 2022, the share of officers among the many wounded was 17%, by June 2024 it decreased to six%. The authors of the investigation consider that this confirms the issue that the Russian military confronted firstly of a full-scale conflict with Ukraine: on account of poor connection, the youthful officers have been pressured to be on the entrance line subsequent to their items and infrequently died. They started to be assigned from superior positions in the summertime of 2022, when Ukraine obtained the primary Himars volley fireplace techniques and started to beat them on command posts close to the entrance. Since then, the variety of losses amongst officers has decreased.
Ratio extreme wounds to medium -sized accidents is roughly one to 10, a light diploma – one to twenty. These are very approximate calculations, for the reason that troopers within the base point out the severity of the harm. The variety of army males with gentle and common wounds grew throughout Russia’s offenses in Ukraine, however the variety of severely wounded stays at about the identical stage. On the similar time, the army with delicate wounds after discharge from the hospital should return to the entrance – this supplies for Vladimir Putin’s decree on mobilization, which has not been formally accomplished in Russia.
Within the GVMU database greater than 3200 diagnoses containing phrase . Many circumstances of amputation of the extremities are marked as delicate wounds. One instance is the 60-year-old junior sergeant, who in 2022 obtained a mine-explosive harm and misplaced his proper leg; Within the GVMU database, it’s listed as frivolously wounded. As a wound of reasonable severity, the bottom signifies an harm of the 19-year-old peculiar, which was within the hospital in 2024 with a prognosis of “traumatic amputation of the left foot”. He is without doubt one of the youngest army with amputation within the GVMU base.
The database is predominated by diagnoses, together with the phrases “fragmentation wound” – There are nearly 70 thousand of them. About 100 thousand instances talked about limbs. “The character of most wounds plus minus is all the time the identical. Within the first place – fragments on the legs and arms, ”Zhilyaev confirms. In winter, in army hospitals, the variety of sufferers with psychological issues and burns is rising (typically obtained when making an attempt to heat up within the dugout). Tons of of the army in two and a half years fell into hospitals with alcohol poisoning, medication or an “unknown substance”.
From February 2022 to June 2024, the typical age of affected person sufferers elevated from 28 to 36 years. The proportion of the wounded and sick ages from 20 to 30 years in two and a half years of the conflict decreased from 55% to 24%. However the fractions of sufferers 40-49 years and 50-59 years have elevated considerably. This corresponds to a change within the contingent of the Russian military in Ukraine: skilled army individuals invaded there, who have been supplemented by mobilized and prisoners, and later contractors from civilian, attracted by funds for participation within the conflict.
The share of the wounded within the age group of 18-19 years stays small; This means that they aren’t massively combating. “In the event that they have been in Ukraine, they might function peculiar and junior sergeants, and the army in these titles endure heavy losses,” mentioned Dara Massikot, senior researcher on the Carnegie Basis for the Worldwide World.
Most sufferers are from motorized rifle items, which make up the biggest a part of the Russian military. Amongst them, the wounded wounded through the conflict suffered. The Normal Employees of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that he had misplaced nearly a 3rd of the personnel in March 2022 through the battles for Kharkov and Raisins, then he was restored, after which once more suffered heavy losses through the counter-offset of the Armed Forces of Ukraine within the Kharkov area in September 2022.
Among the many Airborne Forces items within the first place within the variety of the wounded are the 76th division from Pskov, which is suspected of killings of the inhabitants of Buchi. The GVMU base has details about greater than 2400 sufferers from the 76th division. The sixty fourth separate motorized rifle brigade from the Khabarovsk Territory is one other unit that’s thought-about concerned within the murders of civilians through the occupation of the Kyiv region-judging by the GVMU base, through the conflict it was wounded by 482 individuals, together with 20 officers. From the info within the database it follows that army personnel of the sixty fourth brigade have been massively handled in hospitals in Belarus a minimum of within the first month of the conflict.
The common keep within the hospital for severely wounded is sort of 60 days, For sufferers with medium accidents – greater than 37 days, for frivolously wounded – 18 and a half days, Radio Liberty calculated. This era doesn’t have in mind the time that the wounded spend in locations of main evacuation (for instance, in area hospitals), and the time spent on additional rehabilitation (for instance, in sanatoriums). It typically lasts longer than the principle remedy.