Putin has lost a massive amount of soldiers in Ukraine

According to Ukrainian authorities, since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 the Russian military has lost an unfathomable 600,000 military personnel.

On August 19th, the Ukrainian General Staff's daily update about Russian personnel and equipment losses in Ukraine revealed that Moscow pushed past the 600,000 milestone and has lost 600,470 military personnel since February 24, 2022.

Russia previously exceeded 500,000 personnel losses in May 2024, which means it only took about three and a half months to add another 100,000 personnel losses to Moscow's war effort. But how accurate is this number?

Ukraine is a belligerent in the conflict, and as such, any numbers coming from Kyiv should be taken with a grain of salt—though it should be pointed out that there is a lot of evidence to support the idea that the Ukrainian General Staff's estimates have been previously close to correct. 

Chris York of The Kyiv Independent reported in May 2024, when Russia crossed half a million personnel losses, that it was important to remember the Ukrainian General Staff does not specify killed or wounded, but wrote the "overall consensus" was their figures include "dead, wounded, missing and captured.”

York also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in February 2024 that roughly 180,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the conflict, and evidence from Western intelligence has shown that the claims from Ukraine have been within the realm of possibility. 

On May 25th, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russia lost 1,140 soldiers in the preceding twenty-four-hour period, which pushed Putin’s losses to 500,080. It was an unthinkable number at the time, but similar estimates were made by leaders in Britain and France around that period. 

For example, on April 27th, Ukraine's General Staff reported that Russian personnel losses reached 465,054, a figure that was remarkably close to an estimate provided by the U.K. Minister of State and Minister of the Armed Forces Leo Docherty on the same day. 

“We estimate that approximately 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands more have deserted,” Docherty said about the Russian losses while responding to a question according to the UK Defence Journal. 

Russia had likely seen an accelerated number of personnel losses at the time due to its ongoing offensives in several areas of the frontline. At that point in the war, Moscow had been trying to take the settlement of Chasiv Yar since the beginning of April 2024 and had even opened a new front in Kharkiv Oblast. 

On May 3rd, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné told the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta Europe that France estimated Russia had lost 150,000 soldiers killed and a total of 500,000 personnel losses according to France24.

France's Russian casualty figures were not far off from what Zelensky and the Ukrianian General Staff's estimated at the time. Chris York also noted that a U.S. report released on December 12th, 2023, estimated Russian losses to be 315,000. That same day Ukraine's General Staff reported Russian losses to be 340,650.

“Casualty counts typically skyrocket during drawn-out battles, like during the Russian attacks on the Donetsk city of Bakhmut in early 2023 and when Russia launched its assault on the strategic eastern city of Avdiivka,” Newsweek’s Ellie Cook wrote around the time Russia was about to pass 500,000 personnel losses. 

In March, the UK Ministry of Defence reported on the average daily Russian losses in February, which was the height of the Russian offensive against Avdiivka, and reported Moscow had lost 983 soldiers per day on average, the highest of the war at the time—though that number would later get much worse. 

The U.K. Defence Ministry update explained the increase in the daily average losses for Russia reflected Moscow’s “commitment to mass and attritional warfare” before adding that while the tactics had proven costly, they were nonetheless very effective. 

“Although costly in terms of human life, the resulting effect has increased the pressure on Ukraine's positions across the frontline,” the update explained. These tactics were likely what has helped propel Russia to over 600,000 personnel losses since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. 

On May 31st, the British Ministry of Defence revealed in its daily update on the war that Russia had likely reached 500,000 casualties since the start of the full-scale invasion and noted that daily casualties in May averaged 1,200 soldiers, far higher than the number estimated by the ministry in March regarding February's daily average casualty rate.

Defence Ministry analysts again pointed out that Russian losses were a result of the Kremlin's war strategy, writing: "The elevated casualty rate is highly likely a reflection of Russia's ongoing attritional offensive which is being conducted across a wide front."

"It is highly likely that most Russian forces receive only limited training, and they are unable to carry out complex offensive operations. As a result, Russia employs small-scale but costly wave attacks in an effort to weaken Ukrainian defenses," the ministry update added.

The continuation of such tactics may help explain why Russia was inching closer to 575,000 personnel losses in July. On July 12th, the UK Ministry of Defense reported that Moscow had likely lost 70,000 troops in the preceding two months and again blamed the uptick in losses on offensives taking place across the frontline.

"Russia's casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000 a day over the next two months as Russia continues to try to overmatch Ukrainian positions with mass," the defense ministry update explained.