Two years of war in Ukraine: total confusion about the number of victims Next step on the road to Mars: this is how it continues with ‘Odysseus’.

Two years ago, on February 24, 2022, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine began. Since then, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed on both sides – although the exact number is difficult to determine.

Both Russia and Ukraine provide little information about their own losses. On the one hand, they want the morale of the troops to remain intact, but on the other hand, they do not want to jeopardize public support. That is why there are no reliable figures on war casualties anywhere.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that as of January 31, 2024, the war had claimed at least 10,378 lives among the Ukrainian civilian population, including at least 579 children. In addition, according to OHCHR, another 19,632 civilians were injured, including 1,284 children.

These figures are civilian casualties, confirmed by the UN. However, the OHCHR suspects that there is actually a significantly higher number of injuries and deaths in Ukraine. The reason for this is that the exchange of information has slowed down due to intense military conflict. In addition, numerous reports have not yet been confirmed, for example from Mariupol, Lysychansk, Popasna and Sievierodonetsk. There are said to have been a particularly large number of civilian casualties there.

Secret services release figures on Russian victims

Western secret services mainly publish figures about losses on the Russian side. According to a December 2023 US intelligence report, 315,000 soldiers were killed or injured.

Military expert Wolfgang Richter of the Geneva Center for Security Policy responded to these figures to ZDF in December 2023: According to his assessment, the estimated size is correct, but the specific number of victims is too high. If this were true, “Russia should have initiated a new mobilization long ago.”

According to his calculations, the irreversible losses amount to approximately 250,000 dead and seriously injured by the Russian army. According to the judge, there are more than 120,000 irreversible losses in Ukraine (as of December 2023).

Russia cites a significantly higher number of Ukrainian victims

According to the Russian state news agency ‘Tass’, in December 2023, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave a figure of at least 383,000 Ukrainians who had been killed or injured in the war since February 2022.

Shoigu did not say how many casualties there were on the Russian side. However, he emphasized that the Russian army is the “best trained and most combat capable in the world.” He also reported that more than 98 percent of the injured recovered; the mortality rate was less than half a percent and would continue to decline.

Ukraine also reports a large number of Russian victims

On February 20, 2024, the Ukrainian online media “The Kiev Independent” published preliminary estimates of the Ukrainian armed forces on the losses on the Russian side. According to this information, 406,180 Russian soldiers died.

As you can see from the sometimes very different figures, no reliable statement can be made about the actual number of losses. What can be said, however, is that even if the impression of stasis arises due to hardened fronts, fighting in Ukraine continues and more soldiers are being killed every day.