How many Russians and Ukrainians have died in the Russia-Ukraine War?
We're watching the same failure loop.
Russia and Ukraine have devoted much of their public relations efforts to inflating the casualties of their opponents and playing down their own, making an objective count difficult in one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century.
The inflation of enemy casualty statistics and the downplaying of friendly casualty statistics have been hallmarks of war propaganda since its modern birth with the printing press. This PR war has reached new heights with the Russia-Ukraine War.
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, Russian Multiple rocket launcher TOS-1A fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Kyiv seeks to boost international support by portraying its outnumbered forces as punching well above their weight by mowing down disproportionate hordes of enemy troops. Moscow seeks to downplay domestic fears by portraying its own forces as suffering relatively little as its firepower superiority takes out legions of enemy troops from afar.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought attention back to this psychological struggle with his offering of a remarkably low death count for Ukrainian soldiers.
“Officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed, whether career soldiers or mobilized ones, is 55,000,” Zelensky told France 2 in an interview. “And there are a large number of people that Ukraine considers missing.”
This total is highly improbable and was largely dismissed by analysts. The true total is currently impossible to estimate, but some factors and information give hints.
Historical precedent
The Russia-Ukraine War features an unprecedented situation in modern history: two large, developed, near-peer rivals of roughly equal technological capabilities engaging each other in all-out battles using most of their combat potential.
Most conventional wars of recent history have been between technologically or quantitatively mismatched foes, with casualties likewise heavily unbalanced towards the superior side. Wars such as the American-led invasion of Iraq, the Russo-Georgian War, and the coalition war against ISIS saw the numerical and technological superiority of the larger belligerent result in far more casualties for the inferior side.
The closest equivalent to the Russia-Ukraine War is the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While most of their military …
We're watching the same failure loop.
Russia and Ukraine have devoted much of their public relations efforts to inflating the casualties of their opponents and playing down their own, making an objective count difficult in one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century.
The inflation of enemy casualty statistics and the downplaying of friendly casualty statistics have been hallmarks of war propaganda since its modern birth with the printing press. This PR war has reached new heights with the Russia-Ukraine War.
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, Russian Multiple rocket launcher TOS-1A fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Kyiv seeks to boost international support by portraying its outnumbered forces as punching well above their weight by mowing down disproportionate hordes of enemy troops. Moscow seeks to downplay domestic fears by portraying its own forces as suffering relatively little as its firepower superiority takes out legions of enemy troops from afar.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought attention back to this psychological struggle with his offering of a remarkably low death count for Ukrainian soldiers.
“Officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed, whether career soldiers or mobilized ones, is 55,000,” Zelensky told France 2 in an interview. “And there are a large number of people that Ukraine considers missing.”
This total is highly improbable and was largely dismissed by analysts. The true total is currently impossible to estimate, but some factors and information give hints.
Historical precedent
The Russia-Ukraine War features an unprecedented situation in modern history: two large, developed, near-peer rivals of roughly equal technological capabilities engaging each other in all-out battles using most of their combat potential.
Most conventional wars of recent history have been between technologically or quantitatively mismatched foes, with casualties likewise heavily unbalanced towards the superior side. Wars such as the American-led invasion of Iraq, the Russo-Georgian War, and the coalition war against ISIS saw the numerical and technological superiority of the larger belligerent result in far more casualties for the inferior side.
The closest equivalent to the Russia-Ukraine War is the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While most of their military …
How many Russians and Ukrainians have died in the Russia-Ukraine War?
We're watching the same failure loop.
Russia and Ukraine have devoted much of their public relations efforts to inflating the casualties of their opponents and playing down their own, making an objective count difficult in one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century.
The inflation of enemy casualty statistics and the downplaying of friendly casualty statistics have been hallmarks of war propaganda since its modern birth with the printing press. This PR war has reached new heights with the Russia-Ukraine War.
In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, Russian Multiple rocket launcher TOS-1A fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
Kyiv seeks to boost international support by portraying its outnumbered forces as punching well above their weight by mowing down disproportionate hordes of enemy troops. Moscow seeks to downplay domestic fears by portraying its own forces as suffering relatively little as its firepower superiority takes out legions of enemy troops from afar.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky brought attention back to this psychological struggle with his offering of a remarkably low death count for Ukrainian soldiers.
“Officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed, whether career soldiers or mobilized ones, is 55,000,” Zelensky told France 2 in an interview. “And there are a large number of people that Ukraine considers missing.”
This total is highly improbable and was largely dismissed by analysts. The true total is currently impossible to estimate, but some factors and information give hints.
Historical precedent
The Russia-Ukraine War features an unprecedented situation in modern history: two large, developed, near-peer rivals of roughly equal technological capabilities engaging each other in all-out battles using most of their combat potential.
Most conventional wars of recent history have been between technologically or quantitatively mismatched foes, with casualties likewise heavily unbalanced towards the superior side. Wars such as the American-led invasion of Iraq, the Russo-Georgian War, and the coalition war against ISIS saw the numerical and technological superiority of the larger belligerent result in far more casualties for the inferior side.
The closest equivalent to the Russia-Ukraine War is the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While most of their military …
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