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Russian military losses near 300,000 in 2025, Syrskyi says

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Russian military losses near 300,000 in 2025, Syrskyi says
Memorial wall dedicated to Russian soldiers who lost their lives in the Ukraine-Russia War in Moscow, Russia on August 30, 2025 (Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Russia has lost nearly 300,000 troops in 2025, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported Sept. 9.

"The Russian army's losses since the beginning of the year have already reached almost 300 thousand (299,210) people," Syrskyi wrote on social media.

Although Moscow does not publicly disclose casualty figures, Ukrainian officials say Russian losses are roughly three times higher than Ukraine's.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has lost more than one million troops, with about 30% of those casualties occurring in the past nine months, according to Ukrainian military estimates.

Western intelligence has largely supported Kyiv's estimates, with British intelligence reporting in August that Russia's troop losses surpassed one million.

Despite experiencing heavy losses with only incremental gains, Russia remains committed to its maximalist demands in Ukraine, which include full control of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly told the White House that he intends to occupy Ukraine's eastern Donbas region by the end of 2025, even though Russia has occupied less than 1% of Ukraine's territory since November 2022.

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Lucy Pakhnyuk

News Editor

Lucy Pakhnyuk is a North America-based news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in international development, specializing in democracy, human rights, and governance across Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Her experience includes roles at international NGOs such as Internews, the National Democratic Institute, and Eurasia Foundation. She holds an M.A. in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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