Russian military deaths as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have reportedly reached up to 350,000 – and there are thought to be chilling contributing factors to the huge toll.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces have suffered roughly 300,000 to 350,000 killed in action.
This is alongside 600,000 to 700,000 wounded in action since the February 2022. The conflict is approaching its third year.
Zelensky added that Russian military personnel suffer a 2:1 wounded to killed ratio because of the poor quality of Russian field medicine.
The president added that Putin’s forces struggle to evacuate wounded personnel from the battlefield, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports.
Experts add that the Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi reported on January 20 that Russian forces suffered more than 434,000 casualties in 2024.
150,000 of these are thought to have been killed in action.
The ISW stated in its daily report on the war: “Zelensky’s and Syrskyi’s figures indicate that the Russian military suffered roughly 41 to 48% of its total casualties in Ukraine since 2022 in 2024 alone.
“The highest range of Zelensky’s estimates are notably larger than recent Russian casualty figures from the Ukrainian General Staff and former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.”
Zelensky also said that around 50,000 to 70,000 Russian soldiers have been classified as missing in action (MIA) since February 2022.
It comes as Putin is reportedly struggling to replace huge numbers of Russian army casualties. Russian citizens are “less willing to volunteer to fight”, experts say.
Reports observed by the ISW in late 2024 and January 2025 suggest that the Russian military’s monthly recruitment rate is “likely equal to or below the quantity needed to replace Russia’s monthly casualty rate one-to-one”.
It is also thought that “select Russian federal subjects are failing to meet their monthly recruitment quotas”.
