russian deaths in Ukraine surpass all its casualties since WWII: analysis

russia's casualties in a year of full-scale war in Ukraine exceed its combined losses in all armed conflicts in which the soviet and russian armies have participated since 1945.

The average rate of russian soldiers killed per month is at least 25 times the number killed per month in Chechnya and 35 times the number killed in Afghanistan, which highlights the stark realities of a war of attrition, Center for Strategic and International Studies reports (CSIS) reports.

russia has suffered roughly 200,000 to 250,000 total casualties—personnel wounded, killed, and missing—during the first year of the war. 

These casualty estimates also include regular russian soldiers, militia fighters, and private contractors from the Wagner Group. 

After the end of the Second World War, the largest number of russian soldiers died:

• in Afghanistan (14-16 thousand),
• Chechnya (12-25 thousand),
• during fighting in Donbas before the full-scale war (6-7 thousand).

At the same time, the rate of russian losses is much higher than in any soviet or russian war since 1945.

Thus, during the first year of the full-scale war in Ukraine, russia lost an average of 5,000 to 5,800 soldiers per month.

To compare:

• in Chechnya, russian forces lost an average of 95 to 185 soldiers per month killed,
• in Afghanistan – from 130 to 145 soldiers per month.

According to the United States, the number of Russian servicemen killed and wounded since the beginning of the war is approaching 200,000.

In British intelligence, the losses of the russian army and the PMC Wagner are estimated at 175-200 thousand killed and wounded.

Since the beginning of russia's full-scale war, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already eliminated a total of almost 149,900 soldiers, about 650 invaders in the past day alone.