The Armed Forces of russia have likely sustained approximately 1,000,000 casualties (killed and wounded) since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Of these, it is likely around 250,000 russian soldiers are killed or missing (presumed dead), russia's largest losses in an active war since the Second World War, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
Russia has likely sustained over 200,000 casualties in 2025 so far, with General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reporting a daily average of over 1,250 russian casualties. Russia's permanent combat losses (killed, missing and irrevocably wounded) are likely currently between 400,000 and 500,000 personnel.
Read more: The UK Defense Intelligence Analyzes Why russia Returned to Consecutive Long-Range Aviation Strikes
Wounded soldiers, especially those who are irrevocably wounded, continue to strain the russian Military Medical System at all levels of medical care, causing significant logistic problems and resulting in a shortage of military medical personnel.
Russian forces highly likely continue to attempt to stretch Ukrainian forces by utilizing mass to overwhelm defensive positions and achieve tactical gains. Russia's senior leadership are almost certainly prepared to tolerate continuously high resultant casualty rates so long as this does not negatively affect public or elite support for the war, and those losses can be replaced.
As Defense Express previously reported, over three consecutive nights, May 23-26, 2025, russia conducted three of its largest-scale one-way attack unmanned aerial systems (OWA UAS) attacks against Ukraine since the start of the war. The OWA UAS strikes were part of a wider multi-axis, multi-weapon strike package, particularly targeting Kyiv.
Over 900 OWA UAS were fired at Ukraine over the three-day period. Russian long range aviation (LRA) bombers were involved on back-to-back nights on May 25 and 26, 2025. These two overnight strikes are the first instance of russia utilizing LRA including the Tu-95MS aircraft on consecutive days since August 2024.
Read more: The UK Defense Intelligence: russia Quietly Reinstates General Linked to the Wagner Group in Diplomatic Role
