Ukraine reports Russian losses at approximately 1,532,500 since start of full-scale invasion

Why it matters

The General Staff's daily update is the most widely cited public metric for assessing the human cost of the war on the Russian side. If the cumulative figure of approximately 1.5 million Russian personnel killed and wounded is accurate, it would represent an unprecedented scale of losses for a single conflict since World War II. At the same time, the gap between this figure, the BBC/Mediazona count of confirmed dead, and NATO's estimate illustrates how uncertain — and politically contested — casualty data on both sides remains.

What happened

On the morning of 29 September, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces published its daily casualty update. It reported that Russia lost approximately 1,440 military personnel in the previous 24 hours and that total Russian personnel losses since the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 had reached approximately 1,532,500 killed and wounded.

The update also listed daily Russian equipment losses: 3 tanks, 13 armored combat vehicles, 21 artillery systems, 4 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), 2 air defense systems, 29 units of automotive equipment, 6 ground robotic systems, and 2 units of special equipment. Cumulative equipment losses since 24 February 2022 were reported as 12,388 tanks, 25,463 armored combat vehicles, 50,498 artillery systems, 2,169 MLRS, 1,681 air defense systems, 443 aircraft, 356 helicopters, 2,780 ground robotic systems, 538,702 UAVs of operational-tactical level, 5,118 cruise missiles, 35 ships/boats, 2 submarines, 155,031 vehicles and tankers, and 4,765 units of special equipment.

The General Staff described the 1.5 million cumulative figure as Russia's largest losses in a single war since World War II — greater than the combined losses of the Soviet and Russian armies in all wars and armed conflicts of the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. It noted the figure is roughly 100 times Soviet losses in Afghanistan over a decade and 125 times Russia's officially recognized losses in the two Chechen wars.

Where reporting differs

Total Russian personnel losses diverge sharply depending on the source. The General Staff of the AFU reports approximately 1,532,500 killed and wounded since 24 February 2022. A joint investigation by BBC Russian Service and Mediazona, published on 21 September, confirmed at least 258,989 Russian military killed on the front based only on names verifiable through open sources. NATO has estimated Russian killed and wounded at up to 500,000. Russia itself has not officially disclosed its losses since September 2022, when it last acknowledged 5,937 killed.

Background

The 1.5 million mark was first crossed according to the Ukrainian General Staff's 9 September update. On 12 August, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that Ukrainian forces had eliminated and wounded a record 42,860 Russian personnel in July — the highest monthly figure since January 2025. In a 30 July interview with Fox News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine has lost 50,000 soldiers, with approximately 400,000 wounded and a large number missing in action. A study by the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), published on 1 July, estimated that cumulative killed-and-wounded losses of Russian and Ukrainian military personnel combined have exceeded two million since the start of the full-scale invasion.