Russian troop losses in Ukraine surpass the 1 million mark, Kyiv says

Russia has lost more than 1 million troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Thursday.

The figure — which reportedly comes out to 1,000,340 — includes killed, wounded or incapacitated Russian troops. 

According to the report, Russia has also lost 10,933 tanks, 22,786 armored fighting vehicles, 51,579 vehicles and fuel tanks, 29,063 artillery systems, 1,413 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,184 air defense systems, 416 airplanes, 337 helicopters, 40,435 drones, 3,337 cruise missiles, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.

“The overall losses of the Russian occupying forces in manpower since the beginning of the full-scale invasion have reached 1 million,” Ukraine’s General Staff stated. “More than 628,000 occurred in just the past year and a half.”

Releasing the report on Thursday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that the one-million mark is not just a statistic but a symbol of resistance and resilience.

“One million. That’s how much the enemy’s offensive potential has diminished,” the General Staff wrote. “1 million who could have destroyed us, but whom we destroyed instead.”

The statement went on to highlight the symbolic meaning behind this figure, referencing the sites of Moscow’s defeats and losses in Ukraine, “in the Red Forest near Chernobyl, in the waters of the Dnipro near Antonivsky Bridge, in Donbas and Kharkiv region. And the the bottom of the Black Sea, where the cruiser Moskva sank.”

“This million neutralised occupiers is our response. Our memory of Bucha, Irpin, Kupyansk, Kherson… About the bombed-out maternity hospital in Mariupol and the Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv destroyed by a Russian missile. About the tears of children, civilians shot dead, and destroyed homes.”

Kyiv also expressed gratitude to every Ukrainian soldier who contributed to the fight, reaffirming that “every eliminated occupier is another step toward a just peace.”

“Today, we’ve taken more than a million such steps.” the General Staff concluded.

Tracking military losses

Ukraine started publicly tracking and publishing Russian losses on 1 March 2022, when the count stood at 5,710 killed and 200 captured. Ever since, the losses have been increasing every year. 

In 2022, Russia lost 106,720 troops, averaging 340 per day, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. 

In 2023, the losses more than doubled to an average of 693 per day and 253,290 troops. In 2024, daily losses crossed the 1,000 threshold and totalled at 430,790 troops. 

This year, Russia has been losing on average 1,286 troops per day. 

Ukraine’s General Staff numbers are in line with the estimates of Ukraine’s western allies. 

At the beginning of April, Deutsche Welle reported that according to a senior NATO official Russia’s losses surpassed 900,000 troops, including 250,000 deaths, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. 

Ukraine and Russia do not publicly disclose their losses. 

In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on the battlefield since early 2022.

He also said nearly 380,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been injured and “tens of thousands” remained either “missing in action” or being held in Russian captivity.