Slain Russian soldiers in their invasion of Ukraine

EA-War and Politics 24: What Next for Ukraine-Russia-US Talks?

Tuesday’s Coverage: The Battle to Restore Energy

UPDATE 0610 GMT:

Russia has targeted Kyiv and the nearby area in overnight missile and drone strikes.

Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said two people, a man and a woman, were killed in the community of Bilohorodka outside the capital.

Explosions were heard around 1:26 a.m. The attack hit at least one critical infrastructure facility.

A 51-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were injured amid a ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine.

Air defenses downed 103 of 146 drones, but 36 UAVs hit 22 locations.

The Russians also fired an Iskander-M ballistic missile.

UPDATE 0558 GMT:

Ten civilians were killed and dozens wounded, including two children and a pregnant woman, by Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine on Tuesday.

Five civilians were murdered by a Russian drone strike on a passenger train near a village in the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted:

Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing. And this means responsibility not only for strikes against our people, against our life, but for the very ability to carry out such attacks.

Three civilians were murdered and 32 wounded in a Russian drone strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

The 50-drone assault, which began just after 2 a.m., struck several apartment and university buildings, a preschool, and a church. A power facility suffered “enormous” damage.

Energy Minister, Denys Shmyhal, said 710,000 residents of Kyiv remain without electricity and heating.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: There have been almost 1.8 million military casualties during Russia’s 47-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine, assesses the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

CSIS estimates that 325,000 Russian troops have been killed out of a total of 1.2 million casualties. Ukrainian forces have suffered between 100,000 and 140,000 slain and between 500,000 and 600,000 casualties up to December.

The thinktank says the combined casualties could reach 2 million by the spring.

Ukraine’s General Staff claims more than 1.23 million Russian casualties. BBC Russia and the indepedent Russian outlet Mediazona, using publicly available, have identified more than 163,000 slain Russian soldiers while assessing that the actual number is far higher.

The last official figures from the Russian Defense Ministry, when it declared 5,937 losses.

“No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” CSIS notes. It adds:

After seizing the initiative in 2024, Russian forces have advanced at an average rate of between 15 and 70 meters per day in their most prominent offensives, slower than almost any major offensive campaign in any war in the last century.

Meanwhile, Russia’s war economy is under mounting strain, with manufacturing declining, slowing growth of 0.6% in 2025, and no globally competitive technology firms to help drive long-term productivity.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in February 2025 that Ukraine had lost nearly 46,000 troops, with tens of thousands missing or taken prisoner.

UN monitors say there are almost 15,000 verified civilian casualties, almost all inflicted by Russia, since 2022 but the actual total “is likely considerably higher”.