Key Points and Summary – Russian casualties in the Ukraine war have surpassed the “stunning and grisly milestone” of 1 million, a figure confirmed by Ukrainian officials and in line with Western intelligence estimates.
-A recent CSIS report highlights the catastrophic scale, noting that Russian fatalities are roughly 15 times greater than the Soviet Union’s entire decade-long war in Afghanistan.
-In addition to the staggering human toll, Russia has lost thousands of tanks and armored vehicles. Compounding the tragedy, reports indicate Moscow is systematically reclassifying its missing soldiers as “deserters” to hide the true numbers and deny compensation to families.
How Bad Are Russia’s Losses in Ukraine? The Numbers Are Staggering.
In June, the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces announced that the number of Russian casualties since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war had crossed the 1 million mark. The AP reported at the time that the 1 million figure was “in line with Western intelligence estimates.”
Also in June, the Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report called “Russia’s Battlefield Woes in Ukraine.”
In addition to noting that Russia’s advance had been very slow and that Russia had lost a great deal of equipment, the casualty counts were huge.
“Russian fatalities and casualties have been extraordinary. Russia will likely hit the 1 million casualty mark in the summer of 2025—a stunning and grisly milestone,” the report said, comparing it to massive losses in Russian and Soviet wars of the past.
“Overall, a high of 250,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, with over 950,000 total Russian casualties, a sign of Putin’s blatant disregard for his soldiers. To put these numbers into historical perspective, 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. In addition, Russian fatalities in Ukraine (in just over three years) are 15 times larger than the Soviet Union’s decade-long war in Afghanistan and 10 times larger than Russia’s 13 years of war in Chechnya.”
The Guardian seemed to agree in another June report.
“While precise wartime casualty figures are notoriously difficult to verify, the independent Russian outlet Mediazona has identified the names of more than 111,000 Russian military personnel killed, using official records, social media obituaries, and images of tombstones. The outlet believes the true death toll is significantly higher.”
More recently, on August 21, the Kyiv Independent reported that the Ukrainian general staff now says Russian casualties have reached 1,073,530.
A late July report from United 24 Media found that Russia has gotten in the habit of classifying missing soldiers as deserters to minimize casualty totals.
“A joint investigation by The Kyiv Independent and Russian outlet iStories has revealed a systemic practice by the Russian military of reclassifying missing soldiers as deserters in order to conceal the actual number of war casualties. The investigation, published on July 28, details how this reclassification is being used to mask battlefield losses in the ongoing war against Ukraine,” the report said.
“Hundreds—and potentially thousands—of Russian troops who have gone missing in action are being officially listed as ‘deserters,’ a designation that strips their families of the financial compensation ordinarily provided to those whose relatives are confirmed killed in combat.”
Lost Weapons
In addition, according to Warspotting, Russia has lost a huge amount of weapons since the start of the war. The Russians have lost 3558 tanks, 7913 infantry fighting vehicles, 511 infantry mobile vehicles, 44 anti-tank systems, 411 anti-aircraft systems, 336 towed artillery, 886 self-propelled artillery, 451 rocket and missile artillery, and 121 radars and jammers.
Russia has also lost 103 airplanes, 103 helicopters, and 739 drones, according to Warspotting’s estimates. Russia has lost a total of 19963 weapons and vehicles across all categories, in addition to 955 that were damaged.
Ukrainian general staff’s reports are very different from Warspotting’s numbers: They say Russia has lost “11,120 tanks, 23,157 armored fighting vehicles, 59,316 vehicles and fuel tanks, 31,789 artillery systems, 1,471 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,209 air defense systems, 422 airplanes, 340 helicopters, 52,469 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
Military Affairs
China’s Stealth Air Force Has 1 Mission
Swamplaw Yankee
August 23, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Wow: what a selection of select data! The peer readers knows zip after a long read.
Ok, How many shoes were lost in Stalin’s Death camps? How many eyeglasses? How many overcoats?
Now, compare these data statistics to his competition: Hitler. How many shoes were lost in Hitler’s death camps? It just goes on?
What about Gaza? What are the data banks filled with down there?
Ad rem: all pointless statistical jabber to the US inner beltway reader!
Now: real data! How about we pick children? Those kiddies are easy to count: yes?
Zero mention? Zip, the agit -prop in this op-ed just avoids the data.
Well, everyone in the USA knows that the 1000 year old genocide of Ukrainians by russkie peasants was re-started in 2014 by POTUS Obama + his Democrat Cabal. Obama’s Cabal unilaterally greenlighted the re-start of the ancient russkie genocide industry, yes a business, of mass abduction of Ukrainian children. Shocked, Putin so immediately sent in to Crimea his “little green groomer” military sex trade units to filter “Harvest” children into “Lolita” packages.
For the US Epstein market, “Bacha Bazi” packaging was also available, fast, air-shipped.
Yep: lots of data is available for the last 11 years of russkie sex trade business unilaterally greenlighted for re-start in 2014 by POTUS Obama.
But, agit-prop op-ed just really wants to avoid the most important data of the last 1000 years. The genocide of Ukrainian families and the cultural genocide of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children by the ancient child abusers, the russkie muscovite ethnics.
The USA needs to know that Merklava tanks, etc., are easily produced for a few paltry billion shekels or Han CCP Xi cash.. The butchered + sex abused Ukrainian families of the last 11 years are a direct product of the 2014 USA POTUS + his Democrat Cabal. Notice how a certain 4 year period in the POTUS President spot had zero, nil, action or even public MSM concern about reparation and compensation for these huge numbers of mass abducted Ukrainians. Then, or even now in 2025. -30-
Swamplaw Yankee
August 24, 2025 at 3:34 am
Really. No peer reader input.
Also: the op-ed fella refuses to discern between ancient ethnic russkie peasants and the many captive peoples, states that the rump russkie state has in its dictatorship, aka as a Federation. How many of those captive peoples inside the Federation dictatorship are dead versus the rump russkie muscovite elite?
The op-ed types seem to really want to pretend that every dead man is a russkie peasant right out of Moscow. Most of the dead that signed up with the army to genocide Ukrainians are not ethnic russkies. -30-
T