Russia Conceding Nothing, Hanging on the Thin Edge of the Wedge

A Russian soldier stands guard at the Luhansk power plant in the town of Shchastya in 2022. Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV /AFP via Getty Images

 

"[Ukraine's advancing drone capabilities have allowed a] mid-range strike campaign against Russian logistics, military equipment, and manpower since early 2026."

"Ukrainian forces have intentionally exacerbated other Russian vulnerabilities over the last year, including through the February 2026 block on Russia's use of Starlink terminals in Ukraine and through Ukraine's operational long-range strike campaign against Russian military and oil infrastructure deep in the Russian rear, which significantly disrupted Russian communications on the frontline and drone operations as well as Russia's oil and gas profits."

Institute of Study of War

 

 

This 'special military operation', the Vladimir Putin obsession with forcing Ukraine back into the Soviet Socialist-smothering mode as a satellite of Greater Russia, has cost Russia dearly, but that is obviously not a concern of the Russian warmonger. A newly released investigation has revealed that from 2022 to 2025 an estimated 352,000 Russian servicemen gave up their lives involuntarily for Mr. Putin's claims of rescuing Ukrainians from the stranglehold of neo-Fascism that he claims rules Ukraine. Russia's noble quest to rescue Ukraine, while defending Russia from Ukraine's plans to invade and wreak havoc in Russia on behalf of NATO has failed to impress Ukrainians.

 

It has, though, likely inspired a greater counter-offensive by the Ukrainian military against Russian aggression, a resolve among the Ukrainian leadership that never will Ukraine agree to surrender any of its territory to Russia. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, the very symbol of resistance to military means to destroy a country's sovereignty has become an inspiration to all of Europe, in particular to the east, knowing that should Putin prevail and Ukraine fail, Putin's agenda lists them next in line for rescue from their unfortunate choice of civilizational democracy.

 

Two exiled Russian publications -- Mediazona and Meduza -- compiled the death tally to coincide with Russia's national holiday celebrating victory over Nazi Germany during the Second World War, a world event that Russia has now itself adopted, visualizing victory over its near-abroad neighbours in a replay of ideology canted to portray itself as a noble nation geared to destroying fascistic tendencies while in fact it is emulating those tendencies while claiming its intended victim idolizes them.

 

A soldier. Stock photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

 

With the use of a BBC Russian Service database drawing on publicly reported deaths, including local reports, notices and social media posts by relatives, the figure reflecting Russian soldier deaths was arrived at, with its list of 261,000 Russian soldier names that have been confirmed as victims of the Russian army's 'special military operation'.  Another 90,000 names were extrapolated estimating excess deaths in Russian probate records and those missing or declared dead, by court order.

 

Since the war began in 2022, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, stated that Russian forces suffered close to 1.2 million casualties. Some 325,000 Russian soldiers and 140,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the conflict as of 2025, the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, according to their analysis. Russian gains, despite those losses, along the 1,200 km-long front line, have decreased considerably, leaving Moscow to gain less than 1.5 percent over the one-fifth of Ukrainian territory it has struggled to control.

 

Ukraine's spring counter-offensive resulted in a net loss of territory in April for Russia. According to the Economist, Russia's losses amount to 35,000 soldiers monthly, a number that recruitment cannot catch  up with. Following Russia's May 9th Victory Day parade, Putin implied the war would soon end, that the Ukrainian conflict "was coming to an end", despite his pledge that Russia's special military operation would be prolonged until such time as all his demands are met, none of which are remotely conciliatory or concede that the war the Russian President embarked on has been as disastrous to Russia as it was meant to be to Ukraine. 

 

Mediazona