"Between 24 February 2022 and November 2023, official Russian MoD forces likely suffered between 180,000 and 240,000 personnel wounded and approximately 50,000 killed. Wagner Group mercenaries likely suffered approximately 40,000 wounded and 20,000 killed," says Monday's UK Ministry of Defence intel update on the war in Ukraine, adding "Therefore, overall, the Russian side has likely suffered around 220,000-280,000 wounded and approximately 70,000 killed."
"Even amongst Russian officials there is likely a low level of understanding about total casualty figures because of a long-established culture of dishonest reporting within the military," the analysts concluded. They didn't get into what data they used to make this assessment. We'd also like to see them elaborate on what "wounded" means in terms of fighting capacity thereafter. It's perfectly possible for a soldier to get shot, spend a few days in a field hospital, and then return to the front.
And then there are the guys who get their limbs blown off or shot in the spine and paralyzed and all sorts of other horrible shit and do not see action again, ever. Both would count as "wounded" in the broadest definition of the word, but only the latter is meaningful in the raw numbers.