More than one million Russian military personnel have likely been killed or wounded since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, according to a growing body of Western estimates.
While the daily casualty figures released by Ukraine’s General Staff cannot be independently verified, their assessment has now been echoed by both the UK Ministry of Defence and leading U.S. analysts.
In a recent intelligence update, the UK Ministry of Defence stated: “The Russian Armed Forces have likely sustained approximately 1,000,000 casualties (killed and wounded) since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Of these, it is likely around 250,000 Russian soldiers are killed or missing (presumed dead), Russia’s largest losses in an active conflict since the Second World War.”
The update also noted that Russia has likely suffered over 200,000 casualties in 2025 alone, citing Ukrainian data indicating an average of more than 1,250 Russian casualties per day.
Although unverified, the official Ukrainian figures align with a recent report from the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which also concluded that Russian losses were nearing or had already surpassed the one million mark.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – June 12 2025.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence’s use of language: https://t.co/1vB3QSA41N#StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6A054RdZ3a
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 12, 2025
“Russia has suffered roughly five times as many fatalities in Ukraine as in all Russian and Soviet wars combined between the end of World War II and the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022,” the CSIS analysts stated.
The report estimated that out of more than 950,000 Russian casualties, between 200,000 and 250,000 were fatalities, a rate described as “extraordinary” by its authors. These figures suggest that the death toll among Russian soldiers in Ukraine far exceeds that seen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or Russia’s wars in Chechnya.
The sheer scale of Russian losses has raised questions about the Kremlin’s ability to sustain its war effort in the long term, particularly amid mounting signs of strain on equipment, logistics, and trained personnel.
Nonetheless, Moscow continues to commit forces to offensive operations across eastern and southern Ukraine, seemingly undeterred by the growing human cost. Ukrainian officials have argued that this attritional approach, often involving waves of poorly trained conscripts, reflects a deliberate strategy by Russian commanders to exhaust Ukraine’s defences through mass.
Western defence officials caution that while Ukraine has inflicted enormous losses, it also faces serious challenges in replenishing its own ranks and maintaining sufficient ammunition and air defence capacity. The result is a brutal and protracted stalemate, with neither side currently capable of achieving a strategic breakthrough.
The UK and U.S. intelligence communities are expected to release further assessments in the run-up to the NATO summit later this month, where support for Ukraine and long-term deterrence against Russia will dominate discussions.
Given that both sides are fighting a similar strategy war at the front if seems reasonable to assume a similar level of casualties. Exactly what that level is will be classified with the figures released being PR optimised.
No, both sides are not fighting a similar strategy. Russia is mainly attacking and Ukraine is mainly defending. This makes a huge difference to their casualty rates.
For starters the “Strategy” of both countries are very different, as Ukraine’s strategy is to grind Russia down and exhaust it’s will to fight, while Russia’s strategy has shifted from a swift decapitation strike to attempting to keep a constant advance up that it can sell as it “winning” and isolate Ukraine from it’s western support.
But I suspect what you actually meant was operations and tactics and on both of those Ukraine and Russia operate very differently, with Russia’s combat doctrine being much more based on Soviet Tactics, of mass and massed fires, while Ukraine has in general been favouring a more precision based hybrid of Soviet and NATO doctrines, as well as a very dogged defensive posture.
Nothing about assuming similar casualty levels is reasonable, and if you bother to look up visually confirmed losses, for example Oryx, you’ll see that equipment losses are decidedly one sided.
I often wonder if any Russians peruse these sites, not the probable Intel bods but just normal (Like the rest of us here !) everyday people surfing the defence sites. It would be great/interesting to see what they think about this terrible war/special operation.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”.
Ulya frequents this site.
I think any Russian on this site should be assumed to be a government stodge.
A “Stodge” amongst many “Stuffies” then !
To the slaughter, compliments of a deranged man. Very sad for both sides.
The Russian PR machine will milk it as a great sacrifice for the Motherland and hold a parade. A society sick to the core.