The Russian Way of War: Sustaining High Casualties – Absorbing a high rate of casualties is the Russian way of war. And the Ukraine War proves it.
But before we get to the Ukraine conflict, here is some history to consider.
The Ukraine War Meets History
Despite dreadful losses in World War Two, the Russians were able to defeat Nazi Germany. Conflict in Afghanistan and Chechnya was less successful, and the Russian forces sustained many killed and wounded. Still, the government never really blinked, and despite a loss in South Asia, the Russians ended up winning against Chechen rebels. Now they face enormous casualties in the war against Ukraine.
The ability of Vladimir Putin to ignore the death and destruction of his military has astounded military experts and has shocked even the most casual of observers.
Nobody Is Stopping Putin’s War
Putin’s forces have remained strong in the Donbas and have consolidated and protected territorial gains there. Moscow may be able to keep this hard-fought ground if peace is ever achieved.
But despite the combat losses that would horrify liberal democracies, Russia’s authoritarian-style government can carry out a war for lengthy periods. There is no domestic political pressure to keep the country from fighting.
Ordinary Russians may be skeptical of the war’s aims and prosecution, but these doubters would never publicly articulate negative opinions.
Putin is free to do what he wants, and if that means fighting a war to the death, so be it.
The Statistics Are Difficult to Believe
Losses have been incredible, and they are not getting better. In the first four months of combat this year, Putin’s forces have suffered 160,000 casualties.
Now it is summer fighting season, and this period could be the most dangerous time for the dead and wounded in the history of the war. 2025 has been the worst year of casualty rates yet. Last year was difficult too. In 2024, Moscow was forced to deal with the reality of 45,287 deaths.
“So far, we have identified the names of 106,745 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” BBC wrote. The news outlet even estimates that total is too low and could be as high as 237,000 people killed. When combined with the number of wounded, there could be as many as a million Russian casualties.
Cold War Tactics Are Still Being Used
Russia has never transformed its offensive war strategy from dysfunctional Soviet-era frontal attacks with mass armor and artillery.
They are stronger on defense and have adapted to loitering drones to punish Ukrainian positions, but operational and tactical breakthroughs from skillfully-led offensives were never in the cards. This has just been a costly war of attrition that has resulted in a stalemate.
Glide Bombs and Motorcycles: An Unlikely Combination
One aspect of the fight in which Putin’s generals have found success is the practice of launching deadly glide bombs from airplanes.
This has been a cheap and lethal tactic that has made Ukraine pay the price. Russia has also tried deploying suicidal troops on motorbikes combined with attack drones to advance past Ukrainian defenses.
There have been some success from these missions, but this is not the kind of massive, armored spearhead that could take Kyiv or other smaller cities beyond the front lines. Russia has advanced only in piecemeal attacks that have not been decisive.
How Ukraine Has Responded
Ukraine has been strong on defense. The defenders use mines to funnel the Russians into kill zones where the Ukrainians have pre-registered artillery targets. First-person view (FPV) drones have been extremely effective.
These flying hand grenades menace tanks and infantry, keeping the Russians from advancing. Plus, a massive attack with mechanized forces is impossible to execute. The massing of armored vehicles is spotted immediately by reconnaissance drones, eliminating any measure of surprise.
While Putin’s defense forces have lost thousands of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, the army can still live to fight on with aerial attacks from glide bombs and drones. The air force is intact primarily since fighter jets and bombers stay out of range of Ukrainian air defenses and fire the glide bombs and missiles from relative safety.
On the naval side, the Black Sea fleet has been rendered ineffective, but Putin still has many more ships and submarines that can be redeployed from other commands if needed. And he retains all of his nuclear weapons.
Summer Fighting Season Will Be Especially Deadly
This summer will surely see costly fighting if no ceasefire can be achieved.
The United States could walk away from the negotiating table, as Putin has been cagey and less inclined to pause the fighting. He believes any ceasefire will just be a period when Ukraine receives more weapons systems and ammunition from the West. The Ukrainians will also use the pause in fighting to improve their defensive positions and redeploy their soldiers to shore up weak points.
Russia wants the Donetsk completely and has been assembling forces to take the Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka sectors. The invaders have momentum in these areas, and Putin’s generals tell him this location could be a decisive point in taking more territory. Ukraine is weak here and would need to shore up its defenses or lose more ground.
That will be the future of the fight. Look for Ukrainian weaknesses along the frontline, while the Russians create mass and take territory to push the defenders back slowly. This can happen over the summer as Putin goes through the motions during peace talks.
There will be more Russian losses, which will continue to amaze observers. Putin and his generals are ready to take additional casualties and care little about how high the price is.
Welcome to the Russian way of war.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
John Fenner
May 20, 2025 at 2:46 pm
Russia runs out of money by this fall. [Sovereign wealth fund.]
Smart Russians are planting their own potatoes.
Russia also tortures & kills Baptist, Evangelical ^ non-Russian Oethodox clergy in occupied Ukraine. The Congregations & followers of Rev. Jeffress and Dr. Richard Land may start caring, when they find out.
John Fenner
May 20, 2025 at 2:51 pm
Most recent casualties are probably poor recruits from the countryside–used as decoys for Ukrainian weapons.
Nonetheless, they need NCOs to guide them into battle, who take longer to train.
Dennis
May 20, 2025 at 4:56 pm
Ukraine is not weak in Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka sectors. In Pokrovsk Russia has been repelled.
Dennis
May 20, 2025 at 4:59 pm
From cited ISW article: “For months, Russia has been pushing to capture the remaining parts of Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, with a focus on Pokrovsk, Chasiv Yar and other Ukrainian strongholds. Pokrovsk has been the focal point of Russia’s ground assaults. Currently, the Russian incremental gains mostly stalled or even reversed in the areas, where the Ukrainian troops counterattack and reclaim their previously lost positions.”
Swamplaw Yankee
May 21, 2025 at 4:56 am
The author is inside a box, Putin style. The author actually exhibits a semantic horror show. The Word russian refers to a ethnic genetic group. It is specific. It is aka orc muscovite elite, etc.
The muscovite elite has enslaved many captive nations for many centuries. These ethnic men are known as cannon fodder. The muscovite elite direct them in to attacking Ukrainians as the fancy strikes the russian elite.
The five busloads of brave russians left for the front line in 2014. Now, russians hold guns + force the ethnic captives into the fire lines. The russian peasant concern themselves with kidnapping liitle girls and boys for air lifting to the Nazi orc fatherland. There needy russian deviants will be so willing to give free russian language lessons.
The author omits that in 2025 this is the very same sex trade activity as in 1616. In 1616 Putins’ great great grand pappy worked on russian bi-annual sex trade caravans that attacked the Ukrainian hinterland. The russian peasant butchered the Ukrainian family but kept the children for personal pleasure and sale. The Caravan would human traffic to the fort, Caffa, in the Crimea. There the victimized children would be sold to muslim sex traders + placed in dungeons. The great muslim black sea trafficking fleet would take the Christian children south to Ottamen slimy slavery.
The battle has gone on for centuries with these addicted “Lolita” peasant russians. 1616 is just one slice of a thousand years of Putin depravity that we all watch on the screen. The Yankee was not invented in 1616. Samual Champlain was exploring his new empire in Georgian Bay in 1616. That was the french empire called “New France”.
There are no losses for russians. The captive ethnic men, say from the far east, die in bulk. Please, Stop fooling the uninformed Yankee reader. Russians go back home to moscow. In the fatherland the russians teach their free, no cost “Lolita” how to forget her own language and table top dance russian peasant style. Thanks to Putin’s smooth talking of the many clever POTUS, there has been 12 years of free, no-cost table top dancing. The peasants love and adore Putin for this free, no-cost giveaway that they so much desired + he sent them. Why even think of stooping this ancient genetic need of the russians? -30-
Tom Argon
May 21, 2025 at 5:25 pm
It’s unfortunate that there is no actual journalism covering this conflict. It’s more scraps or speculation covered with degrees of propaganda. Not agreeing with Russian goals or despising Putin does not mean the Russians are not winning. Denial doesn’t win conflicts. Russia will likely achieve its goals by the end of 2025. Putin will be more popular than ever in Russia and the Russian economy is not going to collapse.