How many casualties has Russia suffered in Ukraine?

It's been roughly eighteen months since Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s Armed Forces to invade Ukraine and the world still doesn’t know how many soldiers have been killed. 

The Kremlin has stayed very tight-lipped about the casualties Russia has suffered in the war but Ukrainian authorities have made a point of broadcasting Moscow's losses daily. 

Throughout the course of the war, the world has looked on as Ukraine’s official count of Russian dead has jumped from fifty thousand to well over two hundred thousand troops. 

August 9th saw the total number of killed rise to 251,620 according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But it’s difficult to trust the numbers coming out of Kyiv. 

The last official statement concerning the number of soldiers killed came in September of 2022 when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that 5,397 troops had been killed. 

“I have to mention our losses. Our losses as of today are 5,937 people killed,” Defense Minister Shoigu said according to a translation of his comments by Novaya Gazette. 

However, estimates from Western intelligence have since pegged the Kremlin’s losses to be much higher with the U.S. Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley pegging Russia’s total dead and wounded at roughly 100,000 in November 2022. 

“There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering,” General Milley said while speaking at The Economic Club of New York the Associated Press reported. 

Estimates from U.S. intelligence leaked by Jack Texeria put the death toll at 35-43,000 as of February 2023 based on a Pentagon document that was obtained by NBC News. 

On May 1st, the U.S. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the number of Russians killed just since December of 2022 reached 20,000 troops according to reporting from The Hill. 

“We estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties,” Kirby said during a press briefing, “including over 20,000 killed… It’s really stunning, these numbers.” 

Russia pushed back against Kirby’s claims and Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said: “Washington simply does not have the possibility to name any correct figures.”

The most recent Western estimates of Russia’s casualty count come from the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for the Armed Forces James Healy, who said Moscow suffered 220,000 killed or wounded while speaking in Parliament on July 5th. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

The New Voice of Ukraine covered Minister Healy’s statement at the time and noted the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was reporting 231,700 Russian losses. 

Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona has also been keeping a running tally of Russia’s war dead and it estimated that by the end of May, 47,000 Russians would have died in the war and that the true number was likely between 44,000 and 55,000.

This number did not include losses from the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic according to Mediazona, which means the likely number of dead is probably a lot higher. So what are we to make of all this?

Knowing exactly how many Russian soldiers have been killed is probably impossible to know but it’s likely tens of thousands really have been killed fighting to conquer Ukraine.