Confirmed Russian losses in Ukraine exceed 160,000
17 January 09:15
Confirmed losses of the Russian army during the full-scale war in Ukraine have exceeded 160,000 people. As of January 16, the Russian BBC Service and a team of volunteers have identified 163,606 Russians who have died since the start of the invasion, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to media reports, the list is not complete, as information about the deaths of not all servicemen is publicly available.
Estimates of Russia’s total losses (wounded and killed) by international organizations and intelligence agencies are significantly higher. In December 2025, a senior NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC Russian Service that, according to the alliance, the total number of killed and wounded in the Russian army could be close to 1.15 million. He noted that in November, Russia’s average daily losses reached approximately 1,100 people.
On January 13, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Russia was losing between 20,000 and 25,000 people killed in Ukraine every month. He noted that this number exceeds the total losses of the USSR during the entire Afghan war, where about 20,000 soldiers died in 10 years. According to Rutte, Russian casualties could reach up to 300,000 in 2025 alone.
In June 2025, British intelligence estimated Russia’s total losses at approximately one million people. In August, US President Donald Trump said that since the beginning of 2025, Russia had lost more than 112,000 people killed. In its December analysis, The Economist magazine concluded that Russia’s total losses for the entire war amounted to between 900,000 and 1.35 million people — 1% of the country’s pre-war male population. An approximate figure of about one million people killed and wounded was previously cited by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
