Around 165,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine, media reports

Around 165,000 Russian troops have been killed since the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a report by Meduza and Mediazona, independent Russian media outlets, on Feb. 24.

Using open-source research and statistical analysis, the report suggests that Russian losses have increased each year.

In 2022, approximately 20,000 Russian soldiers were killed. That number more than doubled in 2023, reaching between 47,000 and 53,000, and surged to nearly 100,000 in 2024.

The assessment does not account for foreign fighters or conscripts from occupied Ukrainian territories, whom Russia forcibly recruits to replenish its forces. The estimate is based on comparing roll call lists of the deceased with Russia's Register of Inheritance Cases.

Russia's total losses — including killed, wounded, missing, and captured personnel — are significantly higher, with Ukraine's General Staff reported on Feb. 24 of 868,230 such cases.

President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Feb. 15 that Moscow had lost around 250,000 soldiers, with 20,000 killed in battles for Russia's Kursk Oblast alone. Over 610,000 Russian troops have been wounded since the invasion began, according to Zelensky.

Kyiv launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk in August 2024, initially seizing about 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory.

Up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers were deployed to Kursk Oblast last fall to support Russian forces after they failed to push out Ukrainian troops.

The rising casualties have fueled a surge in missing persons cases in Russia, with courts handling 20,000 such claims in 2024 — two-and-a-half times the pre-war annual average, Mediazona reported on Feb. 4.