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“Only the Defense Ministry Knows,” Peskov Says as Russia Withholds Ukraine War Casualty Data
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Russians should rely only on information provided by the Defense Ministry when assessing army losses in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on January 27, commenting on a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The CSIS report estimates that Russia has lost nearly 1.2 million people in the war launched by Russian leader Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Peskov dismissed the findings, saying such reports should not be regarded as reliable.
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“I do not think that such reports can or should be considered trustworthy information,” Peskov said. According to him, only the Russian Defense Ministry is authorized to release data on military losses. “They, and only they,” he stressed.
At the same time, Russia’s Defense Ministry has not disclosed official casualty figures for the war in Ukraine for a long period, according to The Moscow Times.
The comments came as new findings from the Center for Strategic and International Studies underline the scale of Russia’s losses in the war.
In an analysis published on January 27, CSIS said Russian forces have suffered extraordinarily high casualties while achieving only limited territorial gains in Ukraine.
According to the study, Russia has incurred nearly 1.2 million casualties since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022—the heaviest losses endured by any major power in a single conflict since World War II.
In 2025 alone, Russian forces are estimated to have lost around 415,000 troops killed or wounded, averaging roughly 35,000 casualties per month. Of the total, up to 315,000 Russian soldiers are believed to have been killed.
CSIS added the scale of Russian casualties is striking even by Russian and Soviet historical standards, noting that battlefield deaths in Ukraine exceed Soviet losses in Afghanistan in the 1980s by more than seventeenfold, surpass fatalities from Russia’s First and Second Chechen wars combined by eleven times, and outweighing the total losses from all Russian and Soviet wars since World War II by more than five times.
Earlier, CSIS reported that Russia’s ground campaign in Ukraine is progressing at a historically slow rate, with advances measured at levels not seen in more than a century of modern warfare.
The report notes that despite suffering heavy personnel losses—about 35,000 casualties each month—Russian forces captured only limited territory, gaining roughly 0.8% of Ukraine’s land, or about 4,831 square kilometers, in 2025 and another 0.6%, approximately 3,604 square kilometers, in 2024.
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