On Dec. 8, President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Russia did not help the Assad regime in Syria because “close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead” in the war with Ukraine. In the same post, Trump estimated Ukraine’s losses at “400,000 soldiers.”
On the same day, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the Russian president, rejected Trump’s claim, asserting that the figure originated from inaccurate estimates by Kyiv. Peskov further claimed that Ukraine had suffered significantly higher military losses compared to Russia:
“As concerns the figures announced with regard to losses on both sides, it is obvious that they were presented in the Ukrainian interpretation and reflect Ukraine’s official position. The actual numbers are completely different. Ukraine’s losses are multiple times higher than those of Russia.”
These claims are false.
The figures for casualties in the war between Russia and Ukraine cited by Trump are close to estimates given in recent months by Ukraine, Western defense and intelligence officials, and Western media reports. All the data indicates that Russia has lost more soldiers than Ukraine.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of Dec. 8, Russia’s losses in the war with Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022, in killed and wounded, amount to about 751,910 soldiers – higher than the 600,000 figure mentioned by Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Telegram that as of Dec. 8, “Russian losses exceed 750 thousand of their people. That’s 198 thousand Russians killed and more than 550 thousand wounded” in the war with Ukraine.
Zelenskyy estimated Ukraine’s losses at 43,000 dead and 370,000 wounded, which is a total of 413,000, which is close to the data provided by Trump.
Non-Ukrainian estimates of the two sides’ casualties in the war are about the same. On Dec. 7, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Reagan National Defense Forum that Russia has suffered over 700,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, He noted that Russian losses in the first year exceeded those of all post-WWII conflicts combined, with recent casualty rates surpassing 1,000 troops daily.
On Nov. 10, the U.K.’s chief of defense staff, Sir Tony Radakin, stated that Russia is on the brink of reaching 700,000 casualties, both killed and wounded, due to the war in Ukraine.
On Oct. 28, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, “Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in [President Vladimir] Putin’s war, and he is unable to sustain his assault to Ukraine without foreign support.”
A U.S. defense official quoted by Politico said that as of Oct. 9, Russia had suffered more than 600,000 casualties in the war with Ukraine, with September 2024 being the deadliest month.
The United States has not provided any official figures on Ukrainian casualties in the war.
However, The Wall Street Journal, citing a “confidential Ukrainian estimate,” reported that approximately 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, with an additional 400,000 wounded, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The New York Times reported on Oct. 10 that a U.S. official estimated Ukraine had experienced more than 57,500 soldiers killed and approximately 250,000 wounded during the war, for a total of over 307,000 casualties.
Analyst Stavros Atlamazoglou, writing for the online publication The National Interest, highlighted the severity of Russian casualties, noting that their forces are facing losses on a scale comparable to World War I, with an average of 1,500 troops lost per day:
“The Russian military’s relentless offensive in Ukraine continues to produce staggering casualties. Daily losses for Russian forces are estimated at around 1,500, with nearly 800,000 projected by year’s end.”
