Vladimir Putin has suffered another embarassing blow after Russia reportedly lost over 1,000 troops on the first day of 2025.
Ukraine’s military authorities said that Russia endured a staggering 1,370 casualties on January 1, consisting of both fatalities and injuries.
The official announcement was posted on social media platform X alongside a quote from science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke: “The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.”
Following this latest count, Ukraine now asserts that total Russian casualties since the onslaught began on February 24, 2022, have reached a harrowing 792,170.
While verification remains complex, Kyiv’s numbers are typically higher than those provided by other sources, with both sides rarely disclosing exact figures.
Volodymyr Zelensky, in a rare disclosure of his own in December, acknowledged that about 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had fallen, with some 370,000 instances of injury reported. This figure includes repeat injuries for some individuals.
Marking the new year, Ukraine heralded its record of purported Russian troop casualties in 2024 at 430,790, a considerable climb from 253,290 in the prior year.
Further analysis by the Institute for the Study of War estimates Russia’s losses to be lower, at around 420,000.
This suggests nearly 102 Russian casualties for each one of the 1,609 square miles of Ukrainian territory seized.
Moscow is reportedly suffering substantial casualties in the ongoing full-scale invasion. The eastern front appears to be particularly hard-hit, with Russia making slow but steady progress.
Despite the Kremlin’s assurances of replenishing its forces, the high casualty rate could pose a significant challenge for Russia due to its military and economic implications.
This could potentially serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations to bring an end to the conflict.