Russia has paid “an extraordinary price for minimal gains” in its war against Ukraine, the Center for Strategic and International Studies stated in its latest report.
According to the CSIS, Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This number is roughly equal to the population of Brussels.
The CSIS explained that the million-plus figure includes killed, wounded and missing, while the death toll alone has seen 325,000 Russian soldiers killed since February 2022.
“No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” the CSIS said.
For comparison, US battlefield casualty and fatality numbers are “significantly lower,” according to the report, with the United States “suffering 54,487 battle deaths during the Korean War (and) 47,434 deaths during the Vietnam War.”
Later US interventions resulted in even fewer casualties, with “149 deaths during the 1990–1991 Gulf War, 2,465 deaths in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, and 4,432 deaths in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom”.
At the same time, the CSIS pointed out that despite massive human losses, Russian forces are advancing “remarkably slowly on the battlefield”.
In the Pokrovsk offensive, for example, Russian forces advanced at an average rate of just 70 meters per day.
“This is slower than the most brutal offensive campaigns over the last century, including the notoriously bloody Battle of the Somme during World War I,” the CSIS said, adding that Russian forces have gained less than 1.5% of Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024.
The think tank also estimated that Moscow is paying a heavy economic price for its all-out war against Ukraine. According to the report, Russia “is becoming a second- or third-rate economic power” as its economy is under strain due to the war.
Kyiv wants to inflict further damage
Last week at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian losses had risen to 35,000 killed per month in December last year.
This translates to roughly 48 Russian soldiers killed per hour.
In December 2024, this number was less than half of today’s numbers, Zelenskyy said, pointing to 14,000 Russian troops killed a year ago.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov added later that “all these losses are verified on video”.
“If we reach 50,000 (killed), we will see what happens to the enemy”, Fedorov said, calling it a “strategic objective” for Kyiv. “They view people as a resource, and shortages are already evident”.
Zelenskyy also stated at Davos that Moscow mobilises between 40,000 and 43,000 troops per month. Neither Ukraine nor Russia reveals their losses publicly.
