Russian forces have suffered over 1.1 million casualties since the start of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including more than 300,000 in 2025 alone, according to Western and Ukrainian estimates. Despite modest territorial gains, these advances have come at an extraordinary cost, reports Stavros Atlamazoglou of The National Interest. He writes:

Recent intelligence suggests that tactical changes — moving away from mass infantry assaults toward more coordinated operations — may explain a slight decline in daily casualty rates, though October has seen renewed spikes. On average, Russia has been losing more than 1,000 troops per day for over a year, equivalent to a battalion daily. The scale of losses highlights the failure of Russia’s initial invasion strategy and the unexpectedly strong Ukrainian resistance. They write:

The Russian military is advancing across several axes of advance in Ukraine. Russia’s gains are not groundbreaking, but they are gains. Russian progress, however, does not come cheap. The Russian forces have suffered over 300,000 casualties so far in 2025 and over 1 million since the war began.

According to the latest intelligence estimate by the British Ministry of Defence, the Russian forces have likely sustained approximately 332,000 casualties, including killed and wounded troops, so far in 2025. In comparison, Russia lost approximately 420,000 troops in 2024.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, an average of 950 Russian troops have been killed and wounded every day. This marks an increase from the reported Russian losses in August, when the Russian military, paramilitary units, and pro-Russian separatist forces lost an average of 931 troops killed and wounded every day.  […]

However, October seems to be particularly deadly for the Russian forces thus far. The Russian military has lost an average of over 1,000 troops killed or wounded in seven days. […]

In addition, the Russian forces have lost an average of more than 800 men daily for 23 months.

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