“Ukrainians kneel to honor their fallen compatriots, meanwhile, most Russians simply isolated themselves from the war, journalists say.”, — write: www.unian.ua
Ukrainians kneel to honor their fallen compatriots, meanwhile, most Russians simply isolated themselves from the war, journalists say.
Losses in the Russian-Ukrainian war may reach two million people / UNIAN collage, screenshot, photo ua.depositphotos.comThe total losses of Ukraine and Russia in the war may exceed two million people already this spring, with about two-thirds of them falling on the Russian side. What these losses mean for Ukrainians and Russians who fight or live on the front line, The New York Times asked its correspondents who cover the events of the war.
The head of the Kyiv bureau, Andrew Kramer, called the number of casualties in the Russian-Ukrainian war “an impressive figure.” He told how in Ukraine they treat the death of their compatriots.
“Last summer, I was driving a car in a town in central Ukraine. All the cars stopped, and so did we. People got out of the car and knelt down. Someone in the city scattered flowers right on the road… A funeral procession passed by, many cars were filled with military personnel,” Kramer recalled.
He also cited the example of the military cemetery in Lviv, which turned into “a huge space covered with Ukrainian flags, which are placed on the graves of fallen soldiers.” The correspondent added that it is already full, and a new cemetery is already being opened nearby.
In Russia, the majority of the population is isolated from the warSpeaking about the attitude of Russians to losses in the war, the correspondent Ivan Nechepurenko, who covers events in Russia and beyond, noted that in Russia they created an army of mercenaries, due to which the majority of the population became isolated from the war.
“As for human losses, the Kremlin has built a complex recruitment scheme, according to which elderly men who have not been able to find themselves in life are paid handsomely to participate in hostilities. This actually isolates the majority of the population from the war, relegating it to the periphery of Russian society,” he explained.
The huge damage zone is constantly expandingJournalist Mark Santora, assessing the scale of losses in the war, emphasized that they are determined by the “huge zone of destruction”, which is constantly expanding thanks to drones.
“The scale of death and destruction was probably the most difficult to convey to the readers. The front line, which hardly resembles a line in the traditional sense, becomes more and more deadly every year, as the huge zone of destruction between the two sides expands, and drones and robots turn any movement within it into a deadly adventure,” he noted.
According to him, this zone of damage stretches for more than 1,200 kilometers, which is roughly equal to the distance from Chicago to New York.
“The carnage is spreading far beyond the front lines, and cities and towns are regularly shelled. Finding ways to live in the midst of death has been a central struggle for millions of Ukrainians for over four years. Recently, Russia struck a passenger train, killing at least three civilians. This attack would once have been considered shocking, but now, unfortunately, it has become routine,” Santora said.
He added that the question “who wins” is incorrect:
“Ukrainians are acutely aware of the price they are paying. But as long as Russia is determined to destroy the Ukrainian state, they see no other alternative.”
Losses of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the warAs UNIAN previously reported, the losses of Ukraine and Russia are approaching 2 million, and this is not the end, according to a new report by the American Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Analysts noted that the Russian Federation suffered the largest number of military casualties since World War II. Thus, CSIS claims that from February 2022 to December 2025, Russia lost 1.2 million military personnel, including 325,000 dead. American analysts estimate Ukraine’s military losses at 500,000-600,000, of which up to 140,000 were killed.
Meanwhile, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, recently announced that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers were officially killed in the war, and a large number also went missing. In February 2025, in an interview with American media, he said that 46,000 soldiers were officially considered dead. At that time, there were also data on 380,000 wounded defenders.
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