This is the number of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers who have been killed, wounded, or gone missing since the beginning of the war
After the report was published, the Kremlin rejected CSIS's conclusions. On Wednesday, official spokespersons described the document as "not credible" and reiterated that only the Russian Ministry of Defense has the authority to release official data on combat losses.
In historical terms, the report itself highlights the exceptional scale of the losses. CSIS stated that Russian casualties in Ukraine were "more than 17 times higher than Soviet losses in Afghanistan during the 1980s, 11 times higher than during Russia's first and second Chechen wars, and more than five times higher than all Russian and Soviet wars combined since World War II".
According to the analysis, Russian forces have reportedly suffered a significantly higher number of casualties than Ukrainian forces, with an estimated ratio of approximately 2.5 to 1. However, the study also emphasizes the particularly severe impact that these figures represent for Ukraine, because its population is considerably smaller and its capacity to sustain prolonged losses and mobilize new contingents is more limited.
Despite the high human cost, the territorial gains achieved by Russia have been limited. CSIS indicated that, since 2024, Russian forces have made extremely small advances, moving forward on average between 15 and 70 meters (49.2 and 229.7 feet) per day during their most significant offensives. The report described that pace as "slower than almost any major offensive campaign in modern warfare".
A recent study revealed that the total number of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers killed, wounded, or missing since the start of the war could reach a figure close to two million.
The report was prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank based in Washington, which carried out a global estimate of the human losses accumulated since the beginning of the offensive launched by Moscow in 2022.
According to the study, Russia has reportedly suffered around 1.2 million casualties, which include approximately 325,000 deaths. In Ukraine's case, the document estimates close to 600,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the large-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory, neither country has publicly released complete figures on military casualties. Both Moscow and Kyiv have handled the real number of casualties as classified information, treating it as a state secret.
