Both sides lie about which side is winning in Ukraine.

26 May 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

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“How Many Soldiers Died in the Ukraine War? (2022–2026)”

7 March 2026, History Legends

Breakdown of military losses in the Ukraine war since 2022. Using OSINT and advanced data analysis, we compiled the most accurate estimates for the number of fatalities and soldiers missing in action of both Ukraine and Russia.

Keep track of the Ukraine war losses by visiting our website:

https://ukrainewarlosses.org/

Middle East Observer: https://x.com/ME_Observer_

-- VIDEO CHAPTERS --

0:00 Intro

2:50 Statistics are cold

3:44 Debunking official casualty reports

8:48 How think tanks are making up numbers

13:36 War memorials & exchange of body ratio

18:36 Debunking Twitter nonsense

21:11 Starting the Ukraine War Losses Project

22:22 Problems with Mediazona & UALosses

29:45 Finding reliable casualty databases

33:00 Using advanced coding to solve problems

37:52 Ukrainian and Russian fatalities (2022-2026)

41:02 Explaining the 1 to 1 ratio of losses

46:05 Ukraine War losses timeline

52:52 2022 & the Donetsk and Luhansk dilemma

56:08 Russian fatalities vs territorial gains

57:29 Foreign volunteers

59:16 Conclusion and what to expect in 2026

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► Patreon ✔ / thehistorylegends

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That video explains how and why all of the existing public estimates of the numbers of soldiers on both sides that are casualties, and of the number of those casualties that are dead, are very inaccurate — each side (the numbers published by Governments, and also the numbers published by the billionaire-funded think tanks and other ‘experts’) vastly inflates the numbers of the other side’s casualties and dead, and under-estimate its own side’s numbers. So, they’re all untrustworthy, on BOTH sides.

The updated count, by the most careful and objective (and honest) site that calculates these numbers, which is the site from which that video came, is

https://ukrainewarlosses.org/

, which shows, as-of 26 May 2026, 155,726 dead on Russia’s side, and 170,537 dead on Ukraine’s. The video also places these numbers into historical perspective, as compared to other wars after the year 1900.

The conclusion from these, the most trustworthy, estimates, is that this war is, indeed, a war of attrition, and that since Russia’s population is around four times that of Ukraine, Russia is far likelier to win than Ukraine is, if the war ends in an unconditional surrender instead of in a negotiated settlement.

For it to end in a negotiation, both Zelensky and Putin would likely be overthrown, because both had promised a win, and the huge losses by both sides would then be perceived as having been for nothing. Consequently, the overwhelming likelihood at present is that Russia will achieve the fulfillment of the demands that it had made to the U.S. empire at and prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

I have earlier explained “Why America, the EU, and Ukraine, Should Lose to Russia in Ukraine’s War”. It documents that the U.S. Government — NOT the Russian Government — had actually started this war; the aggressor was America (Obama), NOT Russia (Putin).

On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 24 February 2022, Putin delivered a speech to the nation explaining why Russia would invade Ukraine. He pointed out that (on 7 January 2022), both America and its NATO military alliance against Russia had refused to negotiate with Russia about Russia’s essential national-security demands that are necessary in order to prevent the U.S. empire from becoming able to blitz-invade and conquer Russia as Hitler had tried to do in his Operation Barbarossa blitz-invasion on 22 June 1941, the biggest invasion in human history. Russia did not respond to today’s neo-nazi invasion by way of the empire’s proxy-state of Ukraine, via Russia invading NATO; Russia responded the safer way, by invading Ukraine (controlled by NATO) — the victim of America and its NATO and EU colonies. This was a far less dangerous, and far less harmful, option, than for Russia to go straight into WW3 against the American empire.

On that momentous day, Putin addressed his nation to explain the invasion, and he opened (in stark contrast to what the BBC and Yahoo News etc. allege to explain why Russia invaded):

I will begin with what I said in my address on February 21, 2022. I spoke about our biggest concerns and worries, and about the fundamental threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia consistently, rudely and unceremoniously from year to year. I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border.

It is a fact that over the past 30 years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries regarding the principles of equal and indivisible security in Europe. In response to our proposals, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail, while the North Atlantic alliance continued to expand despite our protests and concerns. Its military machine is moving and, as I said, is approaching our very border.

Why is this happening? Where did this insolent manner of talking down from the height of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from? What is the explanation for this contemptuous and disdainful attitude to our interests and absolutely legitimate demands?

Ever since 2007, Putin had vaguely warned about this (expansion of NATO to within a mere 5 minutes of missile-flying-time from The Kremlin), while not thinking that America and its NATO would actually go all the way; but, in 2014, they did, by taking over Ukraine’s government. Putin’s 24 February 2022 speech avoided blaming Ukrainians; he blamed Americans (their billionaires) and their vassal-states in Europe; all of them had constantly refused to negotiate with Russia. And, now, at the present late date, I can see no alternative other than for Russia to conquer all of Ukraine. America and its vassals do all they can to prevent Russia from winning, and to cause Putin to be overthrown. But I doubt they’ll succeed. Today’s Russians will not allow today’s Hitlers to achieve what Hitler himself (with his “Operation Barbarossa”) could not. Today’s nazi alliance is NATO, and it will again lose.

On May 25th, Judge Napolitano interviewed Scott Ritter, who predicted that Russia will now take out Ukraine’s leadership and the British MI6 and Palantir targeters who were behind Ukraine’s strike on May 22nd that killed 21 Russian college students and injured another 63, while they were asleep, and that collapsed their five-story dormitory building on top of them. Ritter said that “This was done under direct visual supervision of the Ukrainians and their MI6 masters, and the CIA is cognizant of it. It’s not just Ukraine that murdered these people. It’s the British ... MI6 headquarters, Vauxhall, London, legitimate targets.”

Ritter has aways said that this will be a war of attrition. But the nazi alliance in our time has finally gotten desperate, so the war’s end could come soon. It could escalate sharply. Within the U.S. empire, Russia will continue to be blamed: “Putin was the aggressor.” Not “Obama, Trump, and Biden were” — which was true.

Similarly, “Palestinians were the aggressors,” not “Israelis were.” No matter how evil the U.S. gang are, they get away with it, because they are “our team”; they are “on our side.” The vast majority of Germans felt that way about Hitler, too, while he was winning. Competitive sports build that type of “character.” So too does the military. And the billionaires profit enormously from both.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.