More than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in action since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. The conflict remains ongoing, as both sides vie for territorial control.
The total number of Russian casualties is the highest it’s been in all other conflicts combined since World War II, U.S. officials revealed on a call with reporters. Casualties refer to those both killed and wounded.
This September was deadlier for the Russian military than any other month in the war, with an average of 1,271 casualties per day reported by the U.K. Ministry of Defence. By this estimate, some 38,100 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded that month. The British ministry also said there have been about 648,000 Russian casualties in the war with Ukraine, agreeing with the U.S. estimate.
Last month, Russia launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region after Ukraine invaded the area in August. Ukraine’s move put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since World War II. Despite the standstill in Kursk, Russia has steadily gained ground in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in recent months at the cost of its soldiers.
U.S. officials described the conflict as a war of attrition, meaning both Russia and Ukraine are trying to weaken each other by inflicting as many losses as possible.
“It’s kind of the Russian way of war in that they continue to throw mass into the problem,” a top U.S. military official said, announcing the Pentagon’s latest estimate of Russian casualties this week. “And I think we’ll continue to see high losses on the Ukrainian side.”
The U.S. did not disclose the number of Ukrainian casualties, though Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that he had lost over 31,000 troops.
In addition to human casualties, Russia lost 32 medium-to-large naval vessels to Ukraine and more than two-thirds of its pre-war inventory of tanks.
Russian president Vladimir Putin does not want to initiate a “mass mobilization because of the effect that would have on Russia’s domestic population,” said the anonymous U.S. official. “At this point, he has been able to significantly increase the pay of these voluntary soldiers, and he has been able to continue to field those forces without doing a major mobilization.”
“And I think we’re just watching very closely how long that stance can actually be one that he can maintain,” the official added, “and I think it’s an important one for all of us to watch very closely.”
On Tuesday, South Korea publicly warned that North Korea is fighting alongside Russia in the Ukraine war. South Korean defense minister Kim Yong-hyun said it was “highly likely” that at least six North Korean officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in the Donetsk region last week.
The suggestion of a North Korea–Russia alliance comes months after North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Putin signed a strategic deal that includes a vow of mutual aid if either country is attacked. Still, North Korea has denied any accusations of its supplying troops or arms to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.