Ukraine's General Staff reports 1,400 Russian personnel lost in past day; cumulative total near 1.51 million
Ukraine's General Staff said on the morning of September 15 that Russia lost 1,400 military personnel in the past 24 hours and roughly 1,510,000 since the start of the full-scale invasion. Russia has not disclosed its own casualty data since September 2022, when it last publicly cited a killed-in-action figure of 5,937.
Key points
- General Staff reports 1,400 Russian personnel lost in the past 24 hours, as of the morning of September 15.
- Cumulative Russian personnel losses since the start of the full-scale invasion are cited at approximately 1,510,000.
- Russia last publicly disclosed a casualty figure in September 2022, stating 5,937 dead; it has not released data since.
- In the past day the General Staff also reported Russia losing 41 artillery systems, 3 armored vehicles, 4 MLRS, 1 air defense system, 11 ground robotic complexes, 1,839 UAVs, 376 vehicles and fuel tanks, and 7 units of special equipment.
- President Zelensky said in a July 30 Fox News interview that Ukraine had lost 50,000 soldiers and roughly 400,000 wounded, with a large number of missing personnel.
- BBC Russian Service and Mediazona had identified nearly 235,000 dead Russian servicemen by name as of July; NATO estimates cited by the researchers put the real toll at up to 500,000.
- A July 1 CSIS study found combined Russian and Ukrainian killed-and-wounded losses exceeded two million since February 2022.
Why it matters
The General Staff's daily tally is the principal publicly cited basis for estimating Russian losses in a war where Moscow has refused to release casualty data since September 2022. Independent counts by BBC Russian Service and Mediazona and outside estimates from NATO and CSIS provide comparison points, but no official Russian figure exists against which to check them.
What happened
On the morning of September 15, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces published its daily and cumulative Russian loss figures. It reported 1,400 Russian military personnel lost in the preceding 24 hours and approximately 1,510,000 personnel lost overall since the start of the full-scale invasion. The daily equipment breakdown listed 41 artillery systems, 3 combat armored vehicles, 4 multiple launch rocket systems, 1 air defense system, 11 ground robotic complexes, 1,839 UAVs, 376 units of automotive equipment and fuel tanks, and 7 units of special equipment. Russia has not officially disclosed its own casualty data since September 2022, when it last cited 5,937 killed. The cumulative Ukrainian personnel total of approximately 1,510,000 cited by the General Staff as of September 15 differs from a figure of 1.6 million cited by President Zelensky on July 31.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
All sources in the supplied material are Ukrainian outlets (Радіо Свобода, Українська правда, Інтерфакс-Україна, Бабель, ЛІГА.net/LB.ua), which center the General Staff of the Armed Forces as the primary cited authority and lead with the 1,400 daily personnel loss. The coverage explicitly contrasts Ukraine's published figures with Russia's continued refusal to disclose its own losses, and surfaces Zelensky's statements on Ukrainian casualties and his higher July 31 estimate of total Russian losses.
Where reporting differs
Three discrepancies appear in the supplied material. First, the General Staff cites approximately 1,510,000 total Russian personnel losses as of September 15, while Zelensky stated on July 31 that the figure had reached 1.6 million, with roughly 700,000 killed. Second, one article headline cites 383 units of special equipment lost by Russian forces in a day, while the General Staff's detailed breakdown accounts for 7 units of special equipment alongside other categories. Third, Zelensky's own Ukrainian casualty figures differ across reporting: 50,000 killed and roughly 400,000 wounded in the July 30 Fox News interview, versus at least 55,000 killed cited in a separate source as a February statement.
Background
Russia last gave an official killed-in-action figure in September 2022, claiming 5,937 dead, and has disclosed nothing since. As of July, BBC Russian Service and Mediazona had identified nearly 235,000 dead Russian servicemen by name, with the researchers themselves and NATO estimates suggesting the real toll is significantly higher — NATO's estimate cited up to half a million. On July 30 in a Fox News interview, President Zelensky said Ukraine had lost 50,000 soldiers with roughly 400,000 wounded and noted a large number of missing personnel. A CSIS study published July 1 found that combined Russian and Ukrainian killed-and-wounded losses exceeded two million since February 2022. Ukraine had long withheld its own loss figures, saying data would be released after the war; Zelensky has begun publishing such information from time to time.