Russian losses rose 46% since January and hit a record in September, Kyiv says

Russian forces suffered around 46,230 personnel losses during September — the highest monthly figure recorded by Ukraine so far in 2026 — the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on 1 October.

The September figure (46,230) surpassed the summer records: 42,860 in July and 42,020 in August. Russian monthly losses have risen from 31,710 in January to 46,230 in September — an increase of almost 46%.

“This dynamic shows the complete inability of the military leadership of the occupying forces to achieve its objectives, as well as the growing accuracy and effectiveness of Ukrainian units’ strikes”, the General Staff said on Telegram, as The Kyiv Independent reports.

Inflicting heavy losses has become a declared strategic objective of Ukraine: in January, former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine aimed to “kill 50,000 Russians a month”, arguing that such losses could damage Moscow’s ability to continue the war. The September figure brings Ukraine closer to that goal than ever this year.

The increase comes as Russia faces growing pressure to replace troops while maintaining offensive operations along the front. December 2025 marked the first month when Russian personnel losses exceeded the number of new recruits, and since then the manpower balance has become an increasingly important issue as the Kremlin tries to continue the war without declaring a new wave of mobilisation.

Russia still relies heavily on contract recruitment and financial incentives, but recruitment has slowed: 234,000 new military contracts were signed in the first eight months of this year, compared with 260,000 in the same period of 2025, according to regional budget data cited by researcher Janis Kluge.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in July that Russia has lost more than 1.5 million troops, killed or wounded, since the start of the full-scale invasion. The figures cannot be independently verified, and Moscow does not publish comprehensive casualty data.