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1.5 Million and Counting: Why Russia Is Losing Its Army at a Record Pace
Russia’s losses in Ukraine have surpassed 1.5 million troops killed and wounded—a scale unseen in any Russian war since World War II. More striking still is the pace: Moscow is burning through its army faster, not slower, as the war grinds on.
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![Photo of Illia Kabachynskyi]( "Photo of Illia Kabachynskyi")
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Ukraine’s General Staff published its latest statistics on Russian military losses on the morning of September 9. The first figure was 1,500,870 killed and wounded. Neither Russia nor the Soviet Union has suffered manpower losses on this scale in a single war since World War II. Today, in a single month, the Russian army loses more troops than it did in the two Chechen wars combined or over 10 years of war in Afghanistan.
The figure becomes even more striking when compared with other countries and wars. For example, over the eight years of the Iran-Iraq War, military casualties, according to various sources, may have ranged from 500,000–600,000 to around 1.3 million on both sides combined. The United States suffered fewer casualties both in World War II and during the Vietnam War. The UK and France also suffered fewer casualties in World War II.
The Russian military is losing at least 1,000 troops killed and wounded every day, according to the Ukrainian General Staff’s daily reports. Crucially, despite the increasing use of technology in warfare, losses are not declining—they are rising. July 2026 was one of Moscow's worst months, with losses exceeding 42,000 troops. To address the need to replenish troops at the front, the Kremlin has repeatedly increased payments for signing military contracts and is preparing for mass mobilization.
Russia’s high rate of losses
By the end of 2022, the Russian military’s total losses stood at 106,720 troops, according to the General Staff. Even then, the losses were considered enormous: after 10 months of war, Russia had failed to make significant territorial gains apart from Mariupol; the Kremlin had lost Kupiansk and Kherson, withdrawn its forces from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, and seen almost the entire Kharkiv region liberated.
In subsequent years, Moscow’s losses only continued to rise. Russia crossed the 500,000 mark in early 2024. It passed the milestone of one million troops lost in the spring of 2025—by June of that year, the cumulative figure stood at 1,020,980 personnel. By September 9, 2026, the tally had surpassed 1.5 million.
If the war continues at the same pace, the Kremlin could cross the threshold of two million casualties by the end of 2027.
Russia continues to lose its military personnel at a consistently high rate. For context, in January and February 2022, estimates indicated that the strike force assembled for the invasion of Ukraine consisted of roughly 150,000–180,000 troops. In other words, Moscow has already lost around 10 times as many troops as it initially planned to use for a rapid blitzkrieg in Ukraine. And it still does not control a single major administrative center.
More killed than wounded
With each passing year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not only losing more troops overall, but the number of soldiers returning to Russia dead is also increasing.
As drone warfare has evolved, the number of troops killed is now nearly twice the number wounded, and this trend is expected to continue. At the same time, the overall scale of losses has also increased:
2022 — 106,720
2023 — 253,290
2024 — 430,790
2025 — 418,000
In less than nine full months of 2026, losses have already reached around 300,000, while July became the deadliest month of the year so far, with 42,860 troops killed and wounded. Total losses for the year are once again set to exceed 400,000 by the end of December.
Russia has continued to lose personnel at an unprecedented rate for the third consecutive year, with more than 1.2 million losses since the beginning of 2024 alone. This trajectory is unlikely to change because the factors driving it remain in place: drones are still ubiquitous on the battlefield, while the number of futile assaults conducted by the Russian military continues to grow.
With additional mobilization, there will be more troops sent to Ukraine—and more of them will likewise be killed by FPV drones on the front line or by Middle Strike attacks while still in transit toward their positions.
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-1f578f5a5ef38e5508a947fecade1f6a.jpg "A fire burns inside a building following a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia. (Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine)")
