FAKE: According to the U.S., Ukrainian losses are 600,000 military personnel, while Russian losses are no more than 63,000

Russian Telegram channels are spreading claims that the U.S. announced Ukrainian losses: 600,000 military personnel killed, while Russia lost no more than 63,000 soldiers.

This is fake. The information about Ukrainian and Russian losses was spread by Douglas Macgregor. He is not an official representative of the U.S. and regularly disseminates pro-Russian narratives. The last time Ukrainian losses were reported by The New York Times with reference to official anonymous U.S. sources was in August 2023. Even then, Russian losses were higher than Ukrainian losses.

In another Russian Telegram channel, a video is posted in which American Douglas Macgregor cites the same figures about Ukrainian and Russian losses. Using reverse image search, we found that he said this in an interview with Adrian Verbrugge.

Macgregor is not an official U.S. representative. In November 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Macgregor as senior advisor to the acting Secretary of Defense. He held this position until the end of Trump’s presidency on January 20, 2021.

Macgregor is a conspiracy theorist; for example, in 2019, he spread the conspiracy that billionaire George Soros financed bus transportation for foreigners to the United States to destroy American culture. Macgregor plays into Russian propaganda with statements about so-called “Nazis” in Ukraine and accusations against the U.S. of starting the war in Ukraine. He also spread the fake that Ukraine’s total population decreased from 38 million to 18-22 million. You can learn more about Macgregor in our video. 

Macgregor claims that Ukraine has more losses, partly due to worse medical care than the Russians. However, this is false. In an article for Foreign Policy, American political scientist Tanisha Fazal noted that, by all estimates, military medicine in Ukraine is much better than in Russia. Ukrainian troops, for example, have mastered the standards of Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), while Russian troops lack medical training and supplies. Dr. Aaron Epstein, founder of Global Surgical and Medical Support Group, stated in a comment to Business Insider that Ukraine has a good medical system comparable to many other European countries. At the same time, he mentioned the poor state of medical care in the Russian army, which lags behind modern realities.

The last time Ukrainian losses from the U.S. side were voiced in August 2023. At that time, The New York Times, citing official anonymous sources, stated that Ukraine’s military losses were about 70,000 killed and 100,000-120,000 wounded. Russian losses were then approaching 300,000, including 120,000 killed and 170,000-180,000 wounded.

On May 31, 2024, British intelligence stated that, according to its estimates, the total number of killed and wounded Russian military personnel since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 had reached 500,000.

On June 13, 2024, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its losses have been at least 350,000 killed and wounded.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of July 30, 2024, Russian losses were around 577,000 military personnel. As explained by the General Staff’s spokesman, Senior Lieutenant Andrii Kovaliov, in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda, this estimate includes both killed and wounded.

Regarding Ukrainian losses, open data authors of the “Book of Remembrance of Those Fallen for Ukraine” have identified 24,500 known deceased military personnel, 15,000 missing in action, and 3,400 prisoners of war from February 24, 2022, to November 14, 2023. Researchers estimate that the actual number of deceased may be slightly over 30,000, representing no less than 70% of total combat and non-combat deaths among the Armed Forces of Ukraine, SSU, and Ministry of Internal Affairs. The number of wounded is approximately 90,000-100,000, but the majority of injured soldiers with wounds or concussions continue their service or will return to their units after treatment.

A similar estimate was provided by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi during a press conference on February 25, 2024 — he reported 31,000 Ukrainian military personnel killed over two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russian losses at that time were 500,000 military personnel, including 180,000 killed.