2 soldiers a minute — Russia suffers record losses on Nov. 8, General Staff says

On November 8, Russia suffered a record-breaking number of casualties, with the General Staff of Ukraine reporting 2,980 soldiers killed or seriously injured. This equates to the loss of one soldier every 29 seconds. The report came just a day after the General Staff announced Russian casualties had reached 400,000 since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

This marked a new high for daily Russian personnel losses, surpassing the previous record of 2,500 set just a week prior on November 1, 2026. October 2026 proved to be the deadliest month for Russian troops since the start of the invasion, according to Ukraine's General Staff. The Russian military continues to dispatch units on what the General Staff described as suicidal assaults, while Ukraine's soldiers persist in repelling these attacks.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has officially disclosed their casualty figures on the front lines, citing operational secrecy. However, sporadic third-party reports, such as those from hacker groups Belarusian Cyberpartisans and Silent Crow, have provided some insight into the hidden casualty numbers. These groups claimed to have obtained death records from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), indicating between 394,000 and 450,000 Russian military personnel or related individuals have died since the invasion began.

The authenticity of these leaked records and casualty estimates remains unverified by the Kyiv Independent. Additionally, a January 2026 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) suggested Ukraine has likely suffered between 500,000 and 600,000 casualties from February 2022 to December 2025, with 100,000 to 140,000 of those being killed in action. However, the Kyiv Independent was unable to independently verify the Russian losses.