Ukraine War Approaches 2 Million Military Casualties as Russia Bears Heaviest Losses
A sobering new report has warned that the number of soldiers killed, injured, or missing on both sides of Russia's war on Ukraine could reach two million by the spring. The study, conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, reveals the slow and deadly grind of the conflict as it approaches its fourth anniversary.
Unprecedented Russian Casualties Since WWII
The report indicates that Russia has suffered a staggering 1.2 million casualties between February 2022 and December 2025, including up to 325,000 troop deaths. The authors of the study stated emphatically, "No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II." These figures represent the largest number of troop deaths recorded for any major power in any conflict since the Second World War.
For Ukraine, with its smaller army and population, the report estimates between 500,000 to 600,000 military casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths. Russia has described these casualty figures as unreliable, even as its advance in Ukraine remains mired in a grinding war of attrition.
Peace Talks Amid Ongoing Violence
This weekend, a third round of negotiations between the two countries, brokered by the United States, will take place with the aim of ending the war. Analysts note that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears in no rush to find a settlement, despite his army's difficulties along the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line.
US Secretary Marco Rubio acknowledged the challenging path ahead, stating that active work was underway to reconcile the territorial issue of Donetsk in the Donbas region. He described the disagreement as a key remaining issue that is "very difficult" to resolve, telling a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, "It's still a bridge we have to cross. It's still a gap, but at least we've been able to narrow down the issue set to one central one."
Putin has repeatedly asserted that Russia will take all of Ukraine's Donbas region by force unless Kyiv surrenders it in a peace deal. Moscow's forces currently control approximately 90 percent of the region. Kyiv has firmly stated it will not gift Russia territory that Moscow has failed to win on the battlefield.
Recent Attacks Intensify Humanitarian Crisis
In Ukraine on Wednesday, Russian strikes killed a couple near Kyiv and hammered the southern city of Odesa, just one day after a drone attack killed five people on a passenger train. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned these attacks, writing on social media, "The strike hit a residential neighborhood, with no military targets anywhere nearby. We will respond fairly to Russia for this and other similar attacks."
Several buildings sustained damage in the attacks on Odesa, though no casualties were reported from that specific assault. Emergency crews extinguished a major fire at a construction and architecture college in the city, and religious sites including a monastery were damaged in the bombing.
Energy infrastructure continues to be targeted, with Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba reporting that strikes damaged manufacturing facilities, a locomotive, hangars, and sparked fires that required extinguishing. The Black Sea port of Pivdennyi also came under attack but continued operating normally, according to Ukraine's Sea Ports Authority.
Regional governor Oleh Kiper reported on Telegram that three people were hurt in the port attack, which also damaged port infrastructure. A residential building and structures near an Orthodox monastery sustained damage as well.
Hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power following relentless attacks on infrastructure during one of Ukraine's coldest winters on record, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis as the conflict continues with no clear end in sight.
