1000 Days of War in Numbers

A million dead and wounded in Ukraine and Russia, dozens of Ukrainian cities wiped off the map and the largest mass emigration of Russians in 20 years are only part of the colossal damage caused by the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin. IStories summarizes 1,000 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in data. 

Every day, at least 12 civilians and 80 military personnel are killed in Ukraine

Russian propaganda follows Vladimir Putin in repeating that one of the goals of the invasion of Ukraine is to protect the residents of Donbas. However, many times more civilians have been killed in Donbas since the start of the full-scale war than in the previous 8 years of fighting. In all of Ukraine, according to official UN data alone, 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since February 2022, including 650 children. 26,000 people have been wounded, of whom about 1,700 are children. This is at least 12 dead and 26 wounded every day of the war. 

The largest number of civilian casualties is in Donetsk Oblast, followed by Kharkiv, Kherson and Luhansk Oblasts. 

These are only minimum estimates: the UN counts only those cases of wounded or killed civilians that experts managed to verify from several sources. The real figures are much higher. The UN notes that the number of deaths is underestimated in cities where there was intense fighting: for example, in Mariupol, Lysychansk, Popasnaya and Severodonetsk. 

The intensity of shelling, which causes new casualties, has not decreased even after 1,000 days of war. 

According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), since February 2022, about one million people have been killed and wounded in Ukraine and Russia combined. Most of them are Ukrainian and Russian military personnel. Estimates of the number of dead servicemen in Ukraine vary from 31,000 to 80,000. Another 400,000 may have been injured. That is at least 80 military personnel killed every day. 

The war is taking a heavy toll on Ukrainian demography. The country’s population has already fallen by at least 15% — from pre-war 42 million to 35.8 million people, of whom 4.7 42 million live in Russian-occupied territories. The consequences of the war could result in Ukraine’s population shrinking by another 10 million people over the next 25 years. 

Those who stay in the country are subjected to daily stress due to regular shelling and threats to life, daily air raids, and loss of loved ones. The WHO estimates that about a third of Ukrainians (10 million people) suffer from mental disorders due to the war — depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Russia is deliberately destroying Ukraine’s residential buildings and energy sector

Almost daily, the Russian army strikes Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure — apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, and churches. During two years of full-scale war, according to calculations by the Kyiv School of Economics, Russia has destroyed or damaged the homes of 3.4 million people — that is 250,000 residential buildings. The total area of houses and apartments damaged or destroyed by shelling is 90 million square meters — this is 8.6% of the total area of Ukraine’s housing stock. About 66 thousand residential buildings have been completely destroyed. 

The Russian army is shelling not only residential houses, but also Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The Russian authorities make no secret of the fact that they are doing this deliberately. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated that Ukraine “should recognize the legitimacy of Russia’s claims within the situation of the special military operation and its results reflected in our Constitution. And then things will get better with the energy…”. 

Russian strikes have reduced the country’s electricity production by more than 70%, scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich have reported. Almost all of Ukraine’s major power plants have been attacked since February 2022. Ukrainians may face blackouts for 8–20 hours a day this winter, Politico reported. 

As of January 2024, the damage to real estate, energy and other infrastructure is estimated at $157 billion. This is a colossal sum — almost half of all revenues of Russia’s federal budget for 2024. 

The International Criminal Court recognized the strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure as war crimes, and issued arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov. 

The Kremlin controls 18% of Ukraine’s territory

The front line stretches nearly 1,000 kilometers. According to the DeepState project, now about 18% of Ukraine’s territory is occupied by Russia (7% were already occupied before February 2022, 11% — after, it is about 3 thousand settlements in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts). The AFU managed to liberate another 7% of the captured territory during counter-offensives in 2022. 

To the local residents who remain in the captured territories of Ukraine, the occupation authorities use torture to break their resistance. IStories reported how the system of terror is organized in the largest prison in Europe — occupied Melitopol. The exact number of civilians kidnapped by Russian military and security forces is unknown The Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties estimates that there are at least 7,000 of them. 

The Russian army has lost at least 120,000 people dead

Russians are paying a high price for the invasion of a neighboring country. According to the calculations of Meduza and Mediazona, made on the basis of the list of the dead from open sources and the register of inheritance cases, by July 2024, 120 thousand Russians had already died in the war. 

By September, the number of deaths could rise to 140 thousand. The ratio of killed to seriously wounded could vary from 1:1 to 1:2. Thus, irrecoverable losses of the Russian army could amount to 270-420 thousand people. Another unknown number of soldiers were missing. 

Earlier IStories reported that the official statistics of Rosstat for 2023 alone included 45 thousand military deaths. Of these, every fourth was under 30 years old. More than 95% of those killed were under 50. War became the most frequent cause of death of young Russian men: every second deceased man between the ages of 20 and 29 was killed in the war.

Military spending has reached almost half of Russia’s annual budget

War is costing the Russian budget dearly. In 2024, Russia’s spending on “National Defense” reached 10.8 trillion rubles and for the first time in history exceeded spending on “Social Policy,” which includes pensions, benefits and other social payments. Taking into account classified items, total spending on war in 2024 reaches 14.7 trillion rubles, which is more than 40% of all budget expenditures. 

This figure will only continue to grow. The government has proposed to allocate 13.5 trillion rubles for defense in 2025 — a record amount in the history of modern Russia. At the same time, spending on other needs is being reduced. For example, only 1.8 trillion rubles is earmarked for education and culture, which is a decrease compared to 2024, taking into account inflation. Spending on housing and utilities will be cut by half. In addition to the military, spending on Kremlin propaganda and “patriotic education” is growing. 

High military expenditures accelerate price growth. Since the beginning of the war, everything from eggs and butter to real estate has gone up in price in Russia. According to Rosstat, prices rose 27% during the war. According to alternative calculations based on receipts — by 87%. Prices will continue to rise further — this is the consequence of putting the economy on a war footing, for which Russians have to pay the price. 

War on Russian territory: 400 killed by shelling, at least 250 by returned soldiers

The invasion of Ukraine has turned into hostilities on Russian territory. Border regions are subjected to regular shelling, part of the Kursk Oblast is occupied by the AFU. Nearly 400 people have died in Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said in October 2024. Another 1,157 residents of the border region have been injured, she said. 

About 130,000 residents of the region were forced to evacuate after the AFU invaded the Kursk Oblast. They are regularly recording video messages to the federal authorities because they cannot get help. The refugees ask for certificates to buy housing and compensation for damage, and complain about living conditions in temporary accommodation centers, “work for pennies” and looting in the abandoned settlements. Three months after the AFU entered the Kursk region, the government promised to allocate 22.5 billion rubles to help the residents. 

Another threat to Russians inside the country is the returning members of the “special military operation.” According to Verstka’s calculations, they have already killed 242 people and seriously maimed another 227 during the 2.5 years of war. This is a minimum estimate that only includes cases that have made it into the media or court verdicts. 

In the first six months of 2024, the number of servicemen convicted of murder and causing serious harm to health increased 1.5 times compared to the same period last year, IStories reported.

The highest emigration from Russia in 20 years and repression for anti-war views

Because of the war, mobilization and repression from Russia after February 2022 left and did not return 650 thousand people, The Bell calculated. Most Russian citizens emigrated to Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Israel. 

Among European countries the most popular were Germany and Serbia. The Bell notes that not all countries provided data, so the real number of those who moved is higher. This wave of emigration has become the highest in the last 20 years. 

The remaining Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine are being repressed. According to the human rights project OVD-Info, 1,096 people have been involved in such criminal cases, 341 of whom have been imprisoned. News on new criminal and administrative cases for anti-war views appear almost daily. For example, recently a court in Moscow sentenced 43-year-old Anastasia Berezhinskaya, a filmmaker and mother of two children, to 8 years in prison for several comments criticizing the war and Vladimir Putin. 

In the first half of 2024, the number of those convicted for state treason and espionage broke a record, and the number of those convicted for “fakes” about the army and “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces continues to grow as well.

Editor: Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya