The losses of Russia and Ukraine in the war were estimated at almost 1 million people

The number of Ukrainian and Russian military personnel killed and wounded during the war in Ukraine has reached approximately one million people, The Wall Street Journal writes, citing Western intelligence and Ukrainian officials. The Russian army, according to the newspaper, lost about 600 thousand troops, and the Ukrainian army - 480 thousand.

Details . Russia , according to Western intelligence estimates, has lost up to 200 thousand military personnel killed and up to 400 thousand wounded, writes WSJ with reference to Western intelligence data. The newspaper notes that intelligence services of different countries have different estimates of Russian losses, and the figures indicated are an estimate of only some of them.

• Ukrainian losses , according to Kiev's estimate made at the beginning of the year, amounted to 400 thousand people wounded and 80 thousand dead, WSJ notes.
• The newspaper emphasizes that both sides do not disclose their own data on losses . Vladimir Zelensky said in February that 31 thousand military personnel died in the war. Several former officials explained the underreporting of data to journalists by the need to reassure society and the continuation of mobilization.
• High losses will have a long-term negative effect on the demographics of both countries, writes WSJ. Russia was faced, in addition to losses at the front, with the departure of hundreds of thousands of people (the newspaper gives a figure of 600 thousand people ) abroad and a reduction in the flow of labor migrants from Central Asia. About 10 million people left Ukraine or remained in the occupied territories after the start of the war.
• The Ukrainian population in the territories now controlled by Kiev has dropped to 25-27 million people , according to Ukrainian government estimates obtained by the WSJ. At the beginning of 2022, according to Ukrainian demographers and the government, 40 million people lived in the country (including Crimea and territories in the east of the country over which Kiev lost control). In 2001, when the country last conducted a census, 48 ​​million people lived in Ukraine.

• Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Demography and Social Research Alexander Gladun estimated the pre-war population of Ukraine at 42 million people , and the population by the beginning of 2024 in the territory controlled by Ukraine at 29 million people .

• The birth rate in Ukraine has also fallen, and is now at its lowest level on record: in the first half of this year, according to government data, three times as many people died as were born - about 250 thousand deaths and about 87 thousand births were registered. which is 9% less than in the same period last year. In 2021, a year before the full-scale invasion, more than 130 thousand births were registered.

• Demographics have become one of the main reasons why Zelensky refuses to mobilize Ukrainians aged 18 to 25, former Ukrainian officials told WSJ. People in this age group do not yet have children, and if they die or become incapacitated, the demographic situation in Ukraine will become even worse, the newspaper’s interlocutors say. Now, according to officials cited by the WSJ, the average age of Ukrainian soldiers exceeds 43 years .

Context . In June of this year, the Pentagon estimated the total number of Russian losses at 350 thousand people. But there were also higher estimates. For example, British Defense Minister John Healey in April estimated Russia's losses at 450 thousand military personnel, and British intelligence in May at 500 thousand people. By mid-September, Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service had established the names of 69 thousand dead Russian military personnel.