Casualties in the Russo-Ukrainian War included six deaths during the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 14,200–14,400 military and civilian deaths during the war in Donbas, and up to 500,000 estimated casualties during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russian annexation of Crimea
During the Russian annexation of Crimea from 23 February through 19 March 2014, six people were killed. The dead included three protesters,[1][2][3] two Ukrainian soldiers[4] and one Russian Cossack paramilitary.[5] On 10 August 2016, Russia accused the Special Forces of Ukraine of conducting a raid near the Crimean town of Armiansk which killed two Russian servicemen. The government of Ukraine dismissed the report as a provocation.[6] Ten people were forcibly disappeared between 2014 and 2016 and were still missing as of 2017.[7]
War in Donbas (before 2022 invasion)
The overall number of estimated deaths in the war in Donbas from 6 April 2014 to 31 December 2021 was 14,200–14,400. This included about 6,500 pro-Russian separatist fighters, 4,400 Ukrainian fighters, and 3,404 civilians.[8] This number includes non-combat military deaths, as well as deaths from mines and unexploded ordnance. The vast majority of the deaths took place in the first year of the war, when major combat took place before the Minsk agreements.
Total deaths
| Breakdown | Fatalities | Time period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 14,200–14,400 killed | 6 April 2014 – 31 December 2021 | United Nations[8] |
| Civilians | 3,404 killed (306 foreign) | 6 April 2014 – 31 December 2021 | United Nations[8] |
| Ukrainian forces (ZSU, NGU, SBGS and volunteer forces) |
4,400 killed | 6 April 2014 – 31 December 2021 | United Nations[8] |
| 4,647 killed[lower-alpha 1] | 6 April 2014 – 23 February 2022 | Museum of Military History[9][10][11] | |
| Pro-Russian forces (DPR and LPR forces) |
6,500 killed | 6 April 2014 – 31 December 2021 | United Nations[8] |
| 17 killed | 1 January – 25 February 2022 | DPR & LPR[12][13] | |
| Russian Armed Forces | 400–500 killed[lower-alpha 2] | 6 April 2014 – 10 March 2015 | US State Department[14] |
Initially, the known number of Ukrainian military casualties varied widely due to the Ukrainian Army drastically understating its casualties,[15] as reported by medics, activists and soldiers on the ground, as well as at least one lawmaker.[15][16][17][18] Several medical officials reported they were overstretched due to the drastic number of casualties.[15] Eventually, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry stated that the numbers recorded by the National Museum of Military History were the official ones, although still incomplete,[19] with 4,638 deaths (4,500 identified and 138 unidentified) cataloged by 1 December 2021.[9][10]
According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1,175 of the Ukrainian servicemen died due to non-combat causes by 5 March 2021.[20] Subsequently, the military did not publish new figures on their non-combat losses, stating they could be considered a state secret.[21]
Deaths by regions
The following table does not include the 298 deaths from the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 or the deaths of Ukrainian servicemen, which are listed separately.
| Region | Fatalities | Time period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Donetsk region | 2,420 civilians and DPR fighters killed[23] | 6 April 2014 – 15 February 2015 | OCHA |
| Luhansk region | 1,185 civilians and LPR fighters killed[lower-alpha 3][23] | 1 May 2014 – 15 February 2015 | OCHA |
| Donetsk region | 5,042 civilians and DPR fighters killed[27] | 6 April 2014 – 18 February 2022 | DPR |
| Luhansk region | 2,269 civilians killed[28] | 6 April 2014 – 23 February 2022 | LPR |
Missing and captured
By 15 May 2016, the Donetsk region's prosecutors reported 1,592 civilians had gone missing in government-controlled areas, of whom 208 had been located.[29] At the same time, a report by the United Nations stated 1,331–1,460 people were missing, including at least 378 soldiers and 216 civilians. 345 unidentified bodies, of mostly soldiers, were also confirmed to be held at morgues in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast or buried.[30] In all, as of late October, 774 people were missing according to the government,[31] including 271 soldiers.[32] By the end of December 2017, the number of confirmed missing on the Ukrainian side was 402,[33] including 123 soldiers.[34] The separatists also reported 433 missing on their side by mid-December 2016,[35] and 321 missing by mid-February 2022.[27]
As of mid-March 2015, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), 1,553 separatists had been released from captivity during prisoner exchanges between the two sides.[36] Subsequently, Ukraine released another 316 people by late February 2016, according to the DPR and other media reports,[37][38][39][40] while by September, 1,598 security forces members and 1,484 civilians had been released by the rebels.[41] 1,110 separatist fighters and supporters, including 743 civilians, were reportedly still being held by Ukrainian forces as of late March 2016, according to the DPR.[42] They updated the figure of separatist prisoners to 816, including 287–646 civilians, in December.[43][35] At the end of May 2015, the Ukrainian commander of Donetsk airport, Oleg Kuzminykh, who was captured during the battle for the complex, was released.[44]
In December 2017, a large prisoner exchange took place where the rebels released 73 out of 176 prisoners they were holding, while Ukraine released 306 out of 380 of their prisoners. Out of those that were released by Ukraine, 29 brought to the exchange point refused to go back to separatist-held territory, while 40 who were already previously released did not show up for the exchange. Meanwhile, out of those released by the rebels, 32 were soldiers. This brought the overall number of prisoners released by the rebels to 3,215.[33] Among those still held by the separatists, 74 were soldiers.[45] The number of released prisoners was updated to 3,224 in late June 2018,[46] while the number of those still held by the rebels was put at 113.[47] At the end of December 2019, a new prisoner exchange took place, with Ukraine releasing 124 separatist fighters and their supporters, while 76 prisoners, including 12 soldiers, were returned to Ukraine by the rebels. Another five or six prisoners released by the separatists decided to stay in rebel-controlled territories.[48][49][50]
Foreign fighters
Foreign volunteers have been involved in the conflict, fighting on both sides. The NGO Cargo 200 reported that they documented the deaths of 1,479 Russian citizens while fighting as part of the rebel forces.[51] The United States Department of State estimated 400–500 of these were regular Russian soldiers.[14] Two Kyrgyz and one Georgian have also been killed fighting on the separatist side.[52] Additionally, at least 262 foreign-born Ukrainian citizens or foreigners died on the Ukrainian side.[53] One of those killed was the former Chechen rebel commander Isa Munayev.[54]
In late August 2015, according to a reported leak by a Russian news site, Business Life (Delovaya Zhizn), 2,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine by 1 February 2015.[55][56]
Foreign civilians and journalists
At least 306 foreign civilians were killed in the war in Donbas prior to the 2022 invasion:
- 298 passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17[57]
- Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and his Russian fixer and interpreter, activist Andrei Mironov[58][59]
- Four other civilian journalists and media workers from Russia: Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, a correspondent and sound engineer respectively; Anatoly Klyan, a camera operator; and Andrey Stenin, a photojournalist[59]
- One Russian civilian killed in the shelling of Donetsk, Russia[60]
- One Lithuanian diplomat[61]
Landmines and other explosive remnants
As a consequence of the conflict, large swaths of the Donbas region have become contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).[62] According to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, in 2020 Ukraine was one of the countries most affected by ERW in the world, ad had had nearly 1,200 casualties caused by mines or ERW since the beginning of the conflict in 2014.[63] A report by UNICEF released in December 2019 said that 172 children had been injured or killed due to landmines and other explosives.[64]
Russian invasion of Ukraine
Total casualties
In September 2022, Russia's Ministry of Defence confirmed that 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed in combat.[65] It also claimed 61,207 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 49,368 wounded by this point.[66] In December 2023, the Ministry updated its claim of Ukrainian military casualties to 383,000 killed and wounded.[67] In addition, the DPR confirmed that by 22 December 2022, 4,163 of their servicemen had been killed and 17,329 wounded.[lower-alpha 4] Subsequently, leaked US intelligence documents cited the Russian FSB that Russian forces suffered 110,000 casualties by 28 February 2023.[71]
According to BBC News Russian and the Mediazona news website, out of 41,731 Russian soldiers and contractors whose deaths they had documented by 11 January 2024, 7.3 per cent (3,032) were officers, while 8.1 per cent (3,367) were Motorized Rifle Troops and 5.7 per cent (2,377) were members of the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV). In addition, 12.1 per cent (5,067) of Russian soldiers whose deaths had been confirmed were people who were mobilized, while 18.5 per cent (7,717) were convicts.[72] The BBC further stated that "Every week, we discover new evidence of Russian military funerals in different localities of Russia, which were not reported by local authorities. Based on these observations, we can assume that the list of confirmed losses maintained by the BBC contain at least 40–60% fewer names of the dead than actually buried in Russia."[73] Thus, the BBC stated that the actual death toll of Russian forces, counting only Russian servicemen and contractors (i.e. excluding DPR/LPR militia), was over 80,000 by mid-December 2023, "according to the most conservative estimate."[72]
Wagner PMC chief Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed that his organization had lost over 20,000 troops killed by May 25, 2023.[74] He went on to claim that overall, the Russian military had lost 120,000 dead in Ukraine by late June. He accused the Ministry of Defence of systematically downplaying Russian losses.[75]
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that more Russian soldiers died in the first year of the war in Ukraine than in all its other wars since World War II combined, an average 5,000 to 5,800 soldiers a month, vs 13,000 to 25,000 in Chechnya over 15 years and 14,000 to 16,000 in Afghanistan. Thus, the first year of the Ukraine war was 25 times deadlier than Chechnya and 35 times more so than Afghanistan.[76]
Meanwhile, Ukraine confirmed it had 10,000 killed and 30,000 wounded by the start of June 2022,[77] while 7,200 troops were missing,[78] including 5,600 captured.[79] At the height of the fighting in May and June 2022, according to president Zelenskyy and presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were being killed in combat daily,[80][81] while presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said 150 soldiers were being killed and 800 wounded daily.[82] Mid-June, Davyd Arakhamia, Ukraine's chief negotiator with Russia, told Axios that between 200 and 500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed every day.[83] By late July, Ukrainian daily losses fell to around 30 killed and about 250 wounded.[81]
As of mid-April 2023, around 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained missing, of whom some 60-65 per cent were believed to be prisoners.[84]
Ukrainian estimates of Russian military losses tended to be high, while Russian estimates of their own losses tended to be low. Combat deaths can be inferred from a variety of sources, including satellite imagery and video image of military actions.[85] According to a researcher at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, regarding Russian military losses, Ukraine engaged in a misinformation campaign to boost morale and Western media were generally happy to accept its claims, while Russia was "probably" downplaying its own casualties. Ukraine also tended to be quieter about its own military fatalities.[86] According to BBC News, Ukrainian claims of Russian fatalities included the injured as well.[87][88][89] Western countries emphasized the Russian military's toll, while Russian news outlets have largely stopped reporting on the Russian death toll.[90] In early June 2022, the Svetlogorsk City Court in the Kaliningrad region ruled that a list of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, published by privately owned news websites, constituted "classified information" and its publication could be considered a criminal offense.[91]
In terms of confirmed deaths of officers (both military and paramilitary) of both parties of war, the number, according to groups collecting that information, is very similar, with 2,914 Russian officers killed as of 14 December 2023[92] and 2,914 Ukrainian officers killed as of 24 December 2023.[93]
Paul Poast, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, extrapolated and made a prediction in late June 2022, that approximately 125,000 deaths would occur in the first year of the war, based on the daily average fatality rates.[94]
The number of civilian and military deaths is impossible to determine with precision.[95][85] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) considers the number of civilian casualties to be considerably higher than the one the United Nations are able to certify.[96]
| Breakdown | Casualties | Time period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civilians | 11,000+ killed (confirmed)[lower-alpha 5] 11,000 missing |
24 February 2022 – 30 November 2023 | Ukraine[97][98][99] |
| 10,000+ killed, 17,748+ wounded (confirmed minimum, thought higher) |
24 February 2022 – 15 November 2023 | United Nations[100][101] | |
| Ukrainian forces | ~70,000 killed, 100,000–120,000 wounded |
24 February 2022 – 18 August 2023 | US estimate[102][103] |
| 35,000 killed (24,500 conf. by names), 15,000 missing, 3,400 captured, 90,000–100,000 wounded |
24 February 2022 – 14 November 2023 | Ukrainian Memory Book Group[104] | |
| Ukrainian forces (NGU) | 501 killed, 1,697 wounded | 24 February 2022 – 12 May 2022 | National Guard of Ukraine[105] |
| Ukrainian forces (ZSU) | 10,000–13,000 killed, 15,000 missing |
24 February – 1 December 2022 24 February 2022 – 5 October 2023 |
Office of the President of Ukraine[106] Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine[107] |
| Russian forces | ~120,000 killed, 170,000–180,000 wounded |
24 February 2022 – 18 August 2023 | US estimate[102][103] |
| 300,000+ casualties | 24 February 2022 – 29 November 2023 | NATO estimate[108] | |
| 70,000 killed, 220,000–280,000 wounded |
24 February 2022 – 30 November 2023 | UK estimate[109] | |
| 315,000 casualties | 24 February 2022 – 11 December 2023 | US estimate[110] | |
| 107,000+ killed, 214,000 wounded |
24 February 2022 – 11 January 2024 | BBC News Russian estimate[72] | |
| 372,090 losses[lower-alpha 6] (150,000+ killed) | 24 February 2022 – 16 January 2024 | Ukrainian government (ZSU)[111][114] | |
| Russian forces (DPR & LPR excluded) |
83,500+ killed (41,731 conf. by names) | 24 February 2022 – 11 January 2024 | BBC News Russian & Mediazona estimate[72] |
| Russian forces (PMC Wagner) |
22,000 killed, 40,000 wounded | 24 February 2022 – 20 May 2023 | PMC Wagner[115] |
| 20,000 killed, 40,000 wounded | 24 February 2022 – 30 November 2023 | UK estimate[109] | |
| Russian forces (PMCs Wagner, Redut & others) |
10,521 killed (conf. by names) | 24 February 2022 – 11 January 2024 | BBC News Russian & Mediazona[72] |
| Russian forces (Donetsk & Luhansk PR) |
23,500+ killed | 24 February 2022 – 11 January 2024 | BBC News Russian estimate[72] |
Civilian deaths
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By 18 December 2022, OHCHR had recorded 17,595 civilian casualties in Ukraine since February 24, 2022: 6,826 killed and 10,769 injured. This included 9,620 (4,036 killed and 5,584 injured) in Donetsk and Luhansk. Of these, 7,519 (3,553 killed and 3,966 injured) occurred on territory covered by the government of Ukraine and 2,101 (483 killed and 1,618 injured) on territory controlled by Russian armed forces or their affiliates.[116] On the one-year anniversary of the invasion, Ukraine's chief prosecutor feared that 100,000 civilians had been killed in the conflict while confirming that 21,500 were still considered to be missing.[117] Meanwhile, the United Nations confirmed that by 24 September 2023, 9,701 civilians had been killed and 17,748 had been injured, but said they believe the real number is higher.[101]
In April 2022 the civilian death toll included more than 200 children.[118] In March 2022, 55 of the war-related child deaths were from the Kyiv area and another 34 were from Kharkiv.[119] On 17 February 2023, the Ukrainian prosecutor general announced that at least 461 children had been killed since the start of the invasion, with a further 923 wounded.[120] Most of these child victims were from the Donetsk region.[120]
On 5 June, OHCHR said it had received information on 287 civilian casualties in the Russian Federation, with 58 killed and 229 injured.[121] and Sergei Askyonovan, Russian-installed head of Crimea, alleged that a Ukrainian attack on drilling platforms in the Black Sea near Crimea had left seven Chernomorneftegaz workers missing.[122] In addition, missiles struck the Polish border village of Przewodów in Lublin Voivodeship on 15 November 2022 and killed two Polish civilians.[123]
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