Russia has suffered at least 450,000 military deaths since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the total potentially reaching 550,000, according to a Financial Times analysis of leaked government records. The figures highlight the human cost of the war for President Vladimir Putin's forces, which have continued to lose large numbers of troops in battles for relatively small territorial gains.

The records were obtained from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, known as Rosstat, by Belarusian and Ukrainian activist groups Cyberpartisans BY and Silent Crow. The files contained approximately 11.5 million death records held by Russian authorities as of August. The newspaper identified roughly 410,000 conflict-related deaths, 12,000 probable military fatalities and another 42,000 deaths involving fighting-age men whose bodies could not be recovered. Delays in officially registering deaths could push the toll through early August to approximately 550,000.

The heaviest losses occurred in eastern Ukraine. Approximately 120,000 Russian deaths were recorded in the district containing Avdiivka and Pokrovsk, while another 48,000 were recorded in the neighboring Bakhmut district. These areas have seen some of the war's most intense fighting.

Janis Kluge, a Russia expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, warned that the casualty rate is outpacing Russia's ability to recruit replacements. Moscow's official recruitment target is 35,000 personnel per month, but Kluge said the government has not consistently met that goal. Russian budget records tracking compensation payments to families of fallen soldiers also indicated that losses remained high through October.

The average age of Russian personnel killed in 2025 was 40, compared with 34 during the invasion's first year. Men between 35 and 44 accounted for approximately 158,000 deaths, the largest age group in the records. Russia's poorer regions and ethnic minority communities have also suffered disproportionately. Zabaykalsky Krai recorded approximately 12,300 military deaths, while Bashkortostan recorded 15,800.

The records additionally identified 4,141 probable foreign military fatalities, including 807 Uzbeks, 598 Tajiks and approximately 500 Belarusian passport holders. If the January death rate continued throughout 2026, the Financial Times estimated that Russian military fatalities could reach 650,000 by year's end.

The mounting losses come as President Donald Trump pursues negotiations to end the war. U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin before planning a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin. The diplomatic effort followed U.S.-brokered negotiations in Abu Dhabi that made progress toward a major prisoner exchange but failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the fighting.