The Kremlin refutes a claim that Russia has experienced the highest number of casualties among major powers in any conflict since World War II during the ongoing Ukraine war. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., released this week, stated that Russia has faced 1.2 million casualties, including up to 325,000 troop fatalities, from February 2022 to December 2025. The report also predicts that the total number of soldiers killed, injured, or missing on both sides of the Ukraine conflict could reach a million by spring.
Contrary to assertions of progress in Ukraine, the data shows Russia is enduring significant losses for minimal territorial gains, indicating a decline as a major global power. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report on Wednesday, labeling it as unreliable information and stressing that only Russia’s Ministry of Defence is authorized to disclose military loss data.
Both Moscow and Kyiv do not promptly share information on military losses, with each side attempting to inflate the other’s casualty figures. The Russian ministry last reported battlefield deaths in September 2022, citing nearly 6,000 Russian soldiers killed, without updating the figures since then. The Ukrainian government has not responded to the latest report, which estimates Ukraine’s military casualties at between 500,000 and 600,000, including up to 140,000 deaths.
In an interview with NBC in February 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disclosed that over 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the conflict began. The combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties may reach 1.8 million at current rates, as the war nears its fourth year since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The figures from CSIS were compiled through the think-tank’s analysis, data from independent Russian news site Mediazona with the BBC, British government estimates, and interviews with government officials. Reports on military losses have reportedly faced suppression in Russian media, according to activists and independent journalists.
Additionally, the report highlights that Russian forces have been advancing slowly since taking the initiative on the battlefield in 2024, despite their numerical superiority. The war in Ukraine has transformed into a protracted conflict characterized by attrition, with Russian President Vladimir Putin showing no urgency to seek a resolution despite challenges faced by the army along the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line.
Trilateral negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, and the United States to address the war in Ukraine are scheduled to resume in Abu Dhabi on February 1, as per Russia’s Interfax news agency. An initial round of talks was held at the same venue last weekend. The report notes that Russian forces have been advancing at an average rate of 15 to 70 meters per day in significant offensives, a pace slower than most major offensive campaigns in recent history.
Putin has stated varying figures on the number of Russian troops engaged in Ukraine, with the latest being 700,000 fighters. Ukrainian officials reported two fatalities near Kyiv and multiple injuries in attacks across the country. The conflict continues to impact civilian areas, with reports of strikes in various Ukrainian cities causing casualties and infrastructure damage.