Russia’s Momentum Slows to a Crawl

According to The Guardian, Russia’s army recorded its slowest advance since April 2024, gaining just 123 km² in February 2026, partly due to reduced access to Starlink, which hindered battlefield communications.

Russia’s War: Heavy Losses, Sky-High Costs

Defense News reports that a January 2026 CSIS report estimates the Russia–Ukraine war has killed 325,000 Russian soldiers and wounded or left 875,000 missing, while Russian operational costs over four years are around $149 billion.

Despite capturing roughly 28,000 square miles—about 10% of Texas—at an estimated $90 million per square mile in lives and resources, most of the burden falls on Russian society, with President Putin largely insulated from the costs. Defense News writes:

A January 2026 report by researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicates that this war has now claimed 325,000 Russian lives and 875,000 wounded (or missing). For context, roughly 15,000 Soviet military personnel were killed in the ten-year Afghan war. […]

In a December 2023 RAND report, researchers estimated Russian operational costs in Ukraine at $3.1 billion per month. Extrapolating this value over four years of war yields an estimate of $149 billion for Russian operating costs. […]

Conquering a territory of this size has come at a cost of approximately $90 million per square mile in blood and treasure.

Of course, these costs, while borne by Russian society largely through conscription and lower living standards, are not borne in the same way by Putin himself. Napoleon, the inventor of modern conscription, was once told that a planned operation would cost too many men. He replied, “That is nothing. The women produce more of them than I can use.” Possibly Putin has a similar attitude.