How do Ukrainian soldier fatalities compare with Russia’s?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Donald Trump appears determined to end the war in Ukraine—and on terms that are strongly in Russia’s favour. He and his vice-president have harangued Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Oval Office, warning him that he has no leverage and that he needs a ceasefire or he will have no country left.

However, the latest casualty figures tell a different story. This is a bloody war, but Russia is bleeding more than Ukraine. And it is taking almost no territory.

The invasion has come at enormous cost to human life. New death-toll estimates show that the fighting has become more deadly with each passing year. Our charts below show the latest figures, which are drawn from intelligence agencies, defence officials, independent researchers and open-source intelligence.

Start with Ukraine. Data from UAlosses, a website, show that at least 65,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. To get their numbers, researchers combed through news articles and social-media posts to compile a list of soldiers who are known to have been killed.

They found another 55,000 who are missing in action, which could put the death toll at 120,000. In September 2024 a leaked report from a Ukrainian intelligence agency suggested that at least 70,000-80,000 soldiers had died. These numbers do not include civilian deaths, on which there is strikingly little data.

Many tens of thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed. Russian deaths, however, are even higher. BBC Russia estimates that between 150,000 and 210,000 soldiers had been killed as of February.