Russia has sustained over 600,000 casualties since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Defense News reported on Oct. 9, citing senior Pentagon officials.
The figure comes at a particularly deadly stage of the war for Russian troops. According to reports from the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces, September was the second-most lethal month for Russian soldiers since February 2022.
The accelerating losses are disproportionate with Moscow's territorial gains, a senior U.S. defense official said on Oct. 9.
"Russian losses, again both killed and wounded in action, in just the first year of the war exceeded the total of all Soviet losses in any conflict since World War II combined," the official said.
The mounting casualties at the front may hinder the Russian military's recruitment efforts, the official said, putting pressure on the Kremlin to initiate a new wave of mobilization.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has avoided announcing a larger mobilization campaign due to its deep unpopularity in Russia. The military has instead resorted to recruiting convicts, mobilizing young conscripts, and luring soldiers with higher pay and benefits.
Russia may also receive troop support from North Korea, which might begin deploying regular units to Ukraine, South Korea's Defense Minister said on Oct. 8.
As casualties climb, Russian forces continue to press on in eastern Ukraine, focusing on the cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast. Outnumbered and outgunned, Ukrainian soldiers are slowly losing ground under Russian pressure.
Ukrainian troops on Oct. 2 withdrew from the embattled city of Vuhledar amid a heavy Russian assault. The Ukrainian military reported that Russia tried to capture the town "at any cost" by sending reserves to attack its flanks, exhausting defending Ukrainian units.
Russia's elite Marine units suffered four times higher losses during a year of fighting near Vuhledar than during 10 years of the Second Chechen War, the BBC News Russia reported on Oct. 4.
Another senior U.S. military official told Defense News that Moscow would likely continue relying on superior numbers to force incremental gains, despite the body count.
"It's kind of the Russian way of war where they continue to throw mass into the into the problem, and I think we'll continue to see high losses," the official said.
Chris York
