The new year did not enter well for the average Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine. In just over two months, Russian forces have lost approximately 100,000 troops in the fighting, according to Western reports. 

If Russian casualties continue at this rate, they will exceed by a large margin the record-high losses of more than 400,000 men killed and wounded that Moscow suffered in 2024.

Russia’s Horrific Casualty Rate  

“Russia has likely sustained approximately 90,000 casualties (killed and wounded) in the Russia-Ukraine conflict so far in 2025. Since invading Ukraine, Russia has likely sustained approximately 875,000 casualties in total,” the British Ministry of Defence assessed in a recent intelligence estimate on the operational status of the conflict. 

Such losses are a necessary byproduct of the Kremlin’s attritional strategy in Ukraine. In exchange for its

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