A generation lost: Russia's 1.2mn casualties in Ukraine war most for any country since World War 2
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "A generation lost: Russia's 1.2mn casualties in Ukraine war most for any country since World War 2")
Russia is not winning the Ukraine war, a report has stated. Photograph: (Unsplash)
The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) says in a report that Russia is hardly winning the Ukraine war, and Kyiv has an advantage. Its human loss is huge, surpassing casualties in every other conflict combined since World War 2.
Russia's human loss in the war against Ukraine is more than anything witnessed by a major nation since World War 2. According to a report from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 1.2 million Russian troops have either died, been wounded or gone missing since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moreover, data shows that Moscow has made only minor territorial gains in Ukraine in nearly four years of war. The amount of Ukrainian land under its control has increased by just 12 per cent since 2022. The report also questions the basis of certain assumptions, such as those made by the White House, that Russia is on the path to winning the war. The CSIS report says that Ukraine holds a significant advantage on the defensive side. US President Donald Trump told Politico in an interview, “Russia has the upper hand. They’re much bigger. They’re much stronger… At some point, size will win."
What gives Ukraine the upper hand?
The advantage Ukraine has comes from its defence strategies, using which it has managed to restrain Russia's attempts to make gains. The report states "trenches, anti-tank obstacles, mines and other barriers along with drones and artillery" have handed Kyiv the advantage in the war. Casualties on the battlefield also favour Ukraine, with the ratio being 2.5- or 2-to-1. Ukraine has suffered 500,000 to 600,000 casualties (wounded and missing), while the number for Russia stands at 1.2 million, according to the report. This includes 275,000 and 325,000 battlefield deaths for Moscow, compared to Ukraine’s 100,000 to 140,000.
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Report says Russia is not winning the Ukraine war
“The data suggests that Russia is hardly winning,” the authors wrote in the research. The report also compares the figures with other major wars since the Second World War. The United States lost around 57,000 troops in the Korean War and 47,000 during the Vietnam War. The country's human loss in Ukraine is five times higher than the combined toll in all other wars since 1945. The report states that this includes the Afghanistan war and the two Chechen wars. At the Davos Summit 2026, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, "In the 1980s in Afghanistan, the Soviets lost 20,000 in 10 years. Now they lose 30,000 in one month."
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Why the CSIS report on Ukraine matters
The war has also taken an economic toll. According to the report, Moscow is no longer one of the world’s economic powers, and has turned into "a second- or third-rate economic power." A decline in "manufacturing, weak consumer demand, high inflation and a shortage of labour" has contributed majorly towards it, with an economic growth of only 0.6% in 2025.
