Russia’s combat losses in Ukraine have surpassed one million, according to Ukrainian defence officials, a staggering milestone that analysts say reflects the Kremlin’s willingness to sacrifice vast numbers of troops in pursuit of its war aims.
In a statement released Thursday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said Russian losses, both killed and wounded, now total more than one million since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
“We have neutralised as many enemies as 66 conventional wars in Afghanistan,” the ministry said in a social media post, referencing the Soviet Union’s decade-long campaign in Afghanistan that contributed to the USSR’s collapse.
Of the estimated figure, around 250,000 are believed to have been killed, with the rest injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the moment by calling out the Russian regime’s disregard for human life.
“Today, in year four of Russia’s full-scale war, our military has recorded over one million Russian casualties, killed and wounded,” Zelensky said. “That’s the price Putin is willing to pay for his sick geopolitical fantasies. And still, he refuses to end this war.”
Heavy casualties and meat-grinder tactics
Russia currently holds around 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, but its advances have come at immense cost. Experts point to Moscow’s continued use of high-casualty strategies, sometimes described as “meat-grinder tactics”, in battles such as those for Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
These assaults involve massed infantry attacks with little regard for losses. In Bakhmut, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that 20,000 of his fighters were killed during the nine-month effort to capture the city.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, said earlier this year that Russia would “likely hit the one million casualty mark in the summer of 2025”. That threshold has now been reached well ahead of schedule.
“Russian fatalities and casualties have been extraordinary,” wrote CSIS authors Seth Jones and Riley McCabe, noting that Russia has now suffered nearly five times more losses in Ukraine than in all its post-WWII conflicts combined.
Independent monitoring supports Ukrainian estimate
Independent Russian outlet Mediazona, which tracks war deaths using public records, court documents and social media, has verified over 111,000 Russian fatalities, though it admits this is a significant undercount, as it excludes soldiers from occupied Ukrainian territories and injured personnel.
Editor Mika Golubovsky said Ukraine’s estimate is likely to be credible.
“We have a huge backlog of about, like, 10,000 names that still await confirmation,” he told the media. “And it doesn’t seem to end.”
Golubovsky added that many Russian units are being sent into combat with little or no training, leading to especially high casualties.
The UK Ministry of Defence echoed Ukraine’s assessment on Thursday, stating: “This is the devastating human cost Putin is inflicting on his own people.”
Ukraine casualties lower, but significant
While Ukraine rarely publishes its own casualty figures, CSIS estimates that Ukrainian losses are significantly lower than Russia’s, at around 400,000 killed and wounded.
Both sides continue to suffer in ongoing battles along the eastern front, where entrenched positions and heavy artillery exchanges have led to a brutal war of attrition.
Still, experts say Moscow appears undeterred by the growing toll.
“The number of current deaths doesn’t really drop,” said Golubovsky. “Russian commanders are ready to continue this horrific pace.”
