And don't forget the million-plus young Russian men who have fled the country since the start of the war. They will not be back soon if ever.
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Russia Has Lost 1.2 Million Troops in UkraineāMore Than Its Entire Pre-War Army
Russiaās losses in Ukraine have reached nearly 1.2 millionāequal to its entire pre-war army and several times higher than losses in Afghanistan, or most countriunited24media.com
Russiaās military casualty rate
The scale of Russian casualties in the war it started is staggeringāand they continue to grow year over year:
These totals include both those killed and severely wounded who will never return to combatāhence the classification as āirrecoverable losses.ā Sources within Ukraineās General Staff told UNITED24 Media that the proportion of killed Russian soldiers is rising each year. Early in the war, more troops were wounded than killed. That trend has now reversed.
- 2022 ā 105,960
- 2023 ā 359,230 (+250,000)
- 2024 ā 789,550 (+430,000)
- 2025 ā 1.2 million (+410,000)
The Kremlin shows no concern for its military losses. Several key battles illustrate the scale:
Another grim example is Andriivka, a tiny village in the Donetsk region. Over two years of trying to seize it, Russian forces lost 427 soldiers killed or missing, and 798 wounded. In nearby Ozarianivka, 343 were killed and 300 wounded, including 42 officers. In total, Russia lost nearly 900 troops killed and missing, and another 1,226 woundedāamounting to an entire regimentāfor just two villages.
- In the Battle for Bakhmut, the Wagner Group was virtually annihilated, with tens of thousands of its fighters killed.
- In the Battle for Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces eliminated 40,000 Russian troops.
- The fight for the small town of Chasiv Yar has dragged on for 18 months. Russia has failed to capture it and lost nearly 12,000 troops in the process.
Putin has hastened Russia's inexorable demographic decline by a decade or more. The Soviet Union fell when pretty much every SSR rebelled at once and declared their independence. Russia has literally hundreds of non-Russian ethnic groups in their country. When the percentage of the Russian population (currently about 70%) drops to below 50%, I think Russia is going to shatter just as the USSR did before it.



