The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has projected that Russia will surpass 1 million casualties in its ongoing war against Ukraine by this summer, underscoring the severe human cost of President Vladimir Putin’s military actions. Approximately 250,000 Russian soldiers are reported to have died, while Ukraine has suffered around 400,000 casualties, with estimates of Ukrainian deaths ranging from 60,000 to 100,000. The potential milestone of over a million casualties highlights a “stunning and grisly” consequence of the conflict, reflecting Putin’s disregard for the lives of Russian soldiers. To contextualize this figure, it represents five times the total number of deaths in all Russian and Soviet conflicts since World War II.
The casualty estimates align with reports from Western intelligence agencies, indicating that about 1,000 Russian troops are killed or injured daily. The data pertains specifically to the period following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though tensions began with Putin’s annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian separatists in 2014.
Putin’s rationale for launching the invasion included claims that Ukraine had never been a truly independent nation, alongside concerns about NATO’s expansion posing a threat to Russia’s borders. However, his initial assault on Kyiv was met with unexpected resistance from Ukrainian forces, forcing Russian troops into a more attritional form of warfare characterized by “meat grinder” tactics aimed at wearing down their opponents through continuous, overwhelming assaults.
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