Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Would you trust the numbers, if they came from Russia’s Defense Ministry?
September 2022. 3½ years ago.
That was the last time, Russia disclosed its battlefield losses in Ukraine (5,937 soldiers killed)
Since then, the figures have been shrouded in mystery, but analysts and researchers are trying to come up with a plausible estimate of the current Russian losses.
Ukraine is also disclosing daily updates on the estimated Russian losses. As of Januar 29 2026, the Russian losses are estimated to be nearly 1,24 million.
The numbers have not been independently verified, and Ukraine could potentially overestimate the Russian losses in order to feed the narrative of a struggling Russian army. Note that Ukraine has not been accussed of doing this, except by Russia.
But independent analysts and researchers are trying to estimate the Russian losses as well, and a newly published report by U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) also estimated the Russian losses to be approx. 1.2 million.
But those numbers are, according to Russia, not reliable.
Only trust numbers from Russia
The Moscow Times reports that Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the study, that said that “no major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” when describing the scale of Russian losses.
But Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing, that casualty figures could only be trusted, if they come from the Russian Defense Ministry.
“I don’t think such reports can and should be viewed as reliable information,” Peskov told the reporters.
163.600 confirmed
The exiled Russian media outlet Mediazona and the BBC run a counter on verified Russian losses in Ukraine. By mid-January, the number of recorded names has surpassed 163,600.
What makes this counter different than the numbers from Ukraine and CSIS is that, it only includes publicly available and verifiable sources, meaning the list is not exhaustive, as many deaths are not announced.
Sources: Ukaine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, The Moscow Times, Mediazona, BBC, Center for Strategic and International Studies
