Russia struggles to care for wounded soldiers as drone strikes surge
A year ago, most of the reversible Russian personnel losses at the front were caused by artillery. Now, up to 75% are the result of drone use. However, it’s mainly the lightly wounded who are successfully evacuated. The Russians still cannot adequately care for their soldiers.
During the largest battles of the Russian-Ukrainian war, near Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Bakhmut, Vuhledar, in Zaporizhzhia, and near Avdiivka, artillery played a crucial role, accounting for over 60% of the personnel losses on both sides of the front. Over time, the balance began to shift in favor of drones, especially in the past year.
Since early 2024, Ukraine has been intensively using small drones, most commonly armed with mortar grenades, as the main tool of defense against Russian ground attacks. Advances in automation and efficiency of these drones have significantly increased their effectiveness on the battlefield.
The presence of military and commercial drones over the battlefield has greatly changed the situation for soldiers at the front. Battlefield awareness has improved, as drones hovering almost constantly above the front line allow for real-time management of combat operations and serve as a rather dangerous weapon against which countermeasures are hard to find.
This primarily pertains to the protection of individual soldiers and light combat vehicles. People are completely defenseless against an attack by a small drone with a suspended grenade, and combat vehicles lack an adequate amount of effective jamming measures. This explains the sudden increase in losses caused by all types of drones, as noted by Russian military doctors.
Russian analyses
The Russian "Military-Medical Review" has, for years, been very open about the results of studies conducted by employees of military medical institutes. The war in Ukraine has provided a full range of excellent research material. Thanks to this, they have been able to analyze Russian non-combat losses caused by frostbite and diseases, as well as assess Russian winter equipment.
Russian scientists are analyzing not only the effectiveness of new equipment entering the army but also the effectiveness of medical actions, the time needed to evacuate the wounded, and the effectiveness of enemy combat measures.
It’s astonishing that such studies have not been classified and are published in a scientific journal. As a result, the causes of the high mortality rate of Russians on the battlefield are fairly well known by the Russians themselves, as well as by Ukrainians and NATO analysts. Articles in the specialist press reveal that Russian soldiers still do not undergo battlefield medical courses, even at the lowest level, which should be known to every soldier.
Their individual medical kits fall significantly short of those used by Ukrainians and NATO armies. Hence, even less dangerous injuries often result in the soldier’s death. This time, Russian scientists decided to focus on soldiers who were successfully evacuated and ended up in hospitals behind the front lines.
Changing dynamics
The March issue of the "Military-Medical Review" published statistics showing which combat means pose the greatest problem for Russians during the war in Ukraine. Based on research on a sample of 5,813 wounded soldiers, it was established that in the past year, over 75.5% of injuries were caused by FPV drones. Artillery fire accounted for 20.5% of injuries, while only 4% of injuries were caused by small arms fire. Russian doctors noted that nearly three-quarters of injuries caused by drone attacks are light wounds that do not require long hospitalization.
Unfortunately, the article did not include data on deaths caused by drones. This would provide a complete picture of the effectiveness of drone strikes. This is relatively high compared to the number of wounded. This results not only from the lack of medical training and appropriate personal equipment for soldiers but also from a faltering medical evacuation system.
In a series of articles, Russian researchers note that the most common cause of death during medical evacuation is massive bleeding from limb wounds that are not properly secured due to the inability to apply tactical tourniquets and above all due to their lack in the individual soldier's equipment. The second most common cause is fatal head injuries caused by not wearing helmets or using outdated protective gear.
Faltering evacuation system
All studies reiterate the conclusion that more Russian soldiers would survive if the medical evacuation system worked efficiently. However, it falters even more than Russian logistics and is essentially based on improvised means. From almost the start of the war, social media has featured photos and videos of wounded being evacuated in broken-down Ladas, Buchankas, or simply dragged on improvised stretchers.
The Russians simply do not have suitable armored medical evacuation vehicles, although Kremlin propaganda boasts of having excellent Linza vehicles built on the KAMAZ-53949 Typhoon chassis or the introduction of unmanned ground vehicles like the BRG-1. According to Kremlin media, this drone can move a distance of up to 2,297 feet, with the possibility of increasing the range to over 2.5 miles using retransmission equipment, and carry loads of up to 551 pounds, allowing for the evacuation of the wounded or delivery of supplies to the front line.
The problem is that only a dozen or so Linsas were produced, and they could only be spotted on the front until the end of 2022, while the BRG-1 left the factory only for arms fairs near Moscow. Essentially, this should not come as a surprise since the Russians on the front very rarely use tanks and armored personnel carriers, so the luxury of a medical evacuation vehicle is merely a dream for Russian soldiers.
Military literature often emphasizes the importance of the so-called "golden hour," which involves delivering the wounded to advanced medical care within 60 minutes of injury, significantly increasing the chances of survival. According to Russian data, the average time it takes for a wounded person to reach a hospital is as long as 14.5 hours.
In comparison, during the Iraq war, the average medical evacuation time for an American soldier was about 40 minutes. In severe cases, the wounded were transported to advanced hospitals outside the war zone, such as to Ramstein Air Base in Germany or to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the USA. The time to evacuate to a rear hospital did not exceed 24 hours.
