- What is the price of slow Russian progress? 1.5 percent of Ukraine at the cost of 1.2 million losses.
- In its report, the think tank CSIS discusses the sad statistics of Russia’s four-year-long total war against Ukraine.
- Russia’s war against Ukraine is a record-breaker in terms of slow pace and number of victims.
- Ukrainians talk about the crash of two Russian planes.
- The Wall Street Journal predicts three scenarios for 2026.
- Map of the day: Valery Gerasimov lies. F also sees itChinese President Alexander Stubb and storms the Russian narrative.
- Videos of the day: the destroyed Russian missile system and the Tirada-2 complex.
The information in this text is a summary of events for Wednesday, January 28. The situation may be different in the meantime.
The statistics do not let go: no one has paid such a high price for such slow progress as Russia. Although the Kremlin, with the help of US President Donald Trump, creates the impression that it is winning and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has no cards in his hands, the reality on the front shows something completely different.
Russia is paying a huge price for its slow progress and minimal gains in Ukraine. This is confirmed by a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). As he writes, since February 2022, Russian forces have suffered losses of almost 1.2 million people (dead and wounded).
“These are more losses than any superpower has suffered in any war since World War II,” the study’s authors said. If things continue at this pace, the think tank estimates that the number of losses on both sides will reach two million already in the spring.
The average advance of Russian troops is 15 to 70 meters per day. And all this at a time when Moscow is feeling increasing economic pressure and the regime is suppressing opponents of the war with unprecedented repression and censorship.
Yet, as the study notes, when you listen to Vladimir Putin and some US officials, it seems as if Moscow is marching towards an inevitable victory on the battlefield. The United States is even pushing Kyiv to capitulate in negotiations to give up all of Donbas. That is, even those parts of the Donetsk region, from which Ukraine has made a fortress and Russia cannot conquer them even after four years of total war against the Ukrainian state.
From the point of view of the Ukrainian constitution, it is not even possible, and moreover, as military experts agree, it would be a huge strategic mistake that would open the way for the Russians to further conquer Ukraine.
If we look at the ratio of losses, territorial gains and Russia’s long-term economic performance, we get a picture that paints a completely different picture. Finnish President Alexander Stubb, for example, reads it very well (see below). But first, let’s break down the main findings of the CSIS experts:
The worst numbers since World War II.
