2.7 million - the number of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers lost; Killnet, Palach Pro, User Sec, and Beregini hackers break into Ukraine's General Staff computer system

Over 1.7 million Ukrainian soldiers and another 1 million Russian combatants have been either killed or are missing in action in the over three-year-long war between the two countries. This brings the total estimated casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war to a staggering 2.7 million, the highest number of killed, injured and missing in action since the end of Second World War in 1945.

These figures do not include the number of civilians killed or injured. Their numbers are estimated to run into several thousands.

While Ukraine's military does not publicly reveal the casualty figures, the number of dead and missing soldiers are based on the information obtained by Russian hackers who broke into the digital database of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff. The breached database reportedly included details like military ids of soldiers killed and missing, their photographs and other documents like passports, death certificates, and even dog tags, according to an article by Russian news outlet voennoedelo.


According to the hacked data, which has been denied by Ukraine, a total of 118,500 soldiers were killed in 2022, the first year of the war. The numbers rose dramatically to 405,400 in 2023, and reached 595,000 in 2024. With Russia pushing forward along the 750-mile long frontline in recent months, the Ukrainian casualties have been mounting at a rapid pace. The hackers claim 621,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in 2025 alone with almost five months still left for the year to end.

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The hacked data also includes personal details of the top brass of Ukraine's defense forces including the Special Operations Forces (SSO) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, had in early 2025 in an interview to America's CBS News had claimed that only 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war against Russia since 2022. He had put the number of injured soldiers at 38,000.

Russian casualties since 2022

Moscow, too, has been accused of downplaying the number of soldiers lost in the war. Independent military analysts and western media have consistently claimed the Russian losses are manifold the numbers claimed by Vladimir Putin's regime.

A report by The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US policy research organization, released on June 3, 2025, stated that nearly 250,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war. When the number of soldiers injured or missing is added, the figure reaches over 950,000.

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"Russia will likely hit the 1 million casualty mark in the summer of 2025 - a stunning and grisly milestone," the CSIS report states. "Russia has suffered roughly five times as many fatalities in Ukraine as in all Russian and Soviet wars combined between the end of World War II and the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. In addition, Russian fatalities in Ukraine (in just over three years) are 15 times larger than the Soviet Union’s decade-long war in Afghanistan and 10 times larger than Russia’s 13 years of war in Chechnya," it adds.