One million people have already been killed or injured in the full-scale war, which Russia launched against Ukraine in February 2022, WSJ reported.
A confidential Ukrainian estimate at the start of the year put the number of Ukrainian soldiers dead at 80,000 and wounded at 400,000. Western intelligence estimates of Russian casualties vary, with some putting the death toll at nearly 200,000. , and the wounded are about 400,000.
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, since the beginning of the war, 635,000 Russians have been eliminated (killed or wounded), but these figures have not been confirmed by independent sources. Kiev, as well as Moscow, keep their number of victims for obvious reasons.
One of Vladimir Putin's motives for starting a war in 2022 was to increase Russia's population by absorbing Ukrainians. According to government estimates and demographic experts, as a result of Russian invasions and occupation of Ukrainian territories over the past 10 years, Ukraine has lost at least 10 million people as a result of occupation or as refugees. Putin has long declared tackling Russia's chronic demographic decline a priority, and since then the Kremlin has launched a campaign to Russify the occupied territories, including abducting children and handing out Russian passports to Ukrainians, the UNIAN agency reported, citing the American newspaper.
Modern-day Ukraine was once part of the Russian Empire, and Putin has repeatedly said he seeks to bring the country back under Moscow's rule. He denies Ukrainian identity and statehood and claims that Ukrainians are part of the Russian nation. The war had a devastating impact on the Russian Federation's internal demography and labor market. More than 600,000 Russians have fled the country since the full-scale invasion began. These are mostly young professionals who could afford to move to other countries and start a new life.
The Russian attack has catastrophic consequences for the population of Ukraine. The 2001 census reported a population of 48 million. That figure had dropped to 40 million in early 2022, before the Russian invasion, according to Ukrainian government officials. Since the start of the war in February 2022, according to the UN, more than 6 million people have fled Ukraine, and Russia has seized new lands, the total population of the territory controlled by Kiev has fallen to 25-27 million people.