Since the beginning of the war, the Russian Federation has lost at least 216 military pilots. The preparation of each of them requires at least six years and more than $3 million.
How many military pilots has Russia lost?
As noted, in 2023, Russia lost at least 62 more military pilots.
Another 13 military pilots of the Russian Federation died in 2023 on the territory of Russia itself, during the mutiny of late "Wagner Group" leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to the given data, Russian aviation suffered more one-time losses only on the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In total, the publication managed to establish the names of 45,123 Russian occupiers who died in the war in Ukraine from Feb 2022.
At least 6,614 of them were killed from October 2023 to February 2024, that is, during the period when Russian units were advancing near Avdiivka and in the neighbouring districts of the Donetsk region.
These are only those losses that we managed to confirm based on open data. According to our estimates, the real number of dead on the Russian side (without taking into account military personnel from the territories of the so-called "people's republics") may be twice as high, the message states.
What is known about the downing of Russian planes
In recent days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed six Russian aircraft.
On Feb 19, explosions rang out in Mariupol. The adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko informed about the plane crash. Later, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleschuk confirmed the incident, saying that the Air Forces downed two more Russian planes in the east.
According to the AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, these planes carried out anti-aircraft missile strikes against the positions of Ukrainian forces.
On February 18, the AFU downed a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber in the east.
On Feb 17, it became known that Ukrainian Air Forces had destroyed three Russian aircraft — two Su-34 fighter bombers and a Su-35 fighter. They were also downed on the eastern front.
