One year into Russia’s war in Ukraine, quantifying the toll of the conflict is an elusive goal. Estimates of the casualties, refugees, and economic fallout from the war produce an incomplete picture of the deaths and suffering. Precise figures may never emerge for some of the categories international organizations are attempting to track.
UN human rights experts count civilians killed and wounded, but know their tallies fall significantly short. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has provided an updated accounting of their troop losses. Even the scope of the weaponry that Western countries have sent Ukraine is murky.
Here’s a look at some of the numbers on the one year mark since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, with no end to the war in sight.
Roughly 5,000 missile strikes, 3,500 airstrikes and 1,000 drone strikes: Firepower that Russia has launched against Ukraine over the past year, according to Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov, a senior official in the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
18: The percentage of total Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces as of Thursday, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank. That’s down from 27 percent on March 23, before Ukrainian counter-offensives recaptured vast swaths of land — but up from the 7 percent held by Russia and Russia-aligned separatists before February 24, 2022, as part of an armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea that year.
71,905: Potential Russian war crimes — killings, kidnappings, indiscriminate bombings, and sexual assaults — that are under investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor-general. Reporting by the Associated Press and “Frontline,” recorded in a public database, has independently verified 639 incidents that appear to violate the laws of war.
8,006: Confirmed civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, through February 15, according to the UN human rights office. The office uses strict methodology and says verification of thousands of reported casualties is pending in Russian-occupied cities such as Mariupol, Lysychansk, and Sievierodonetsk.
3,382: Civilian deaths in Ukraine recorded by the UN rights office for March 2022, the highest number for a single month of the war.
13,287: Civilians injured in the conflict over the last year, according to the UN.
5,937: Russia’s most recent count, from September, of its troops killed in Ukraine since February 2022.
About 200,000: Western estimate of Russian troops killed and wounded. Britain’s Ministry of Defense has estimated 40,000-60,000 Russian troops have died fighting in Ukraine.
9,000: Ukraine’s most recent count of its troops’ losses since the invasion, as provided in August by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
More than 100,000: Estimate of Ukrainian troops killed or wounded, according to Western officials.
8.1 million: Refugees who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion, based on figures provided by national governments. The number includes more than 5.2 million people in more than 40 European and central Asian countries, including nearly 1.6 million in Poland, more than 880,000 in Germany, and nearly 2.9 million who went to Russia, according to the UN refugee agency.
17.6 million: People in Ukraine needing humanitarian aid, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
$138 billion: The total damage caused to Ukraine’s infrastructure due to the war, according to the latest Kyiv School of Economics figure from January 24.
33 Percent: Minimum drop in Ukraine’s gross domestic product in 2022 expected by the International Monetary Fund. Final numbers are pending.
2.2 Percent: Expected decline in Russia’s GDP in 2022, according to the IMF.
30 Percent: Decline in the value of Ukrainian exports in 2022, as reported by the World Trade Organization.
16 Percent: Increase in the value of Russian exports in 2022, according to the WTO. It noted that the volume of Russian exports may have declined slightly, but the value was up because of price increases for fuels, fertilizers, and cereals that Russia produces.
$113 billion: Emergency funding for the Ukraine response approved by Congress last year. Includes about $62 billion to be provided through the Department of Defense, nearly half of it for weapons, training, and other “direct security assistance,” and $46 billion through the Department of State and the American Agency for International Development, according to the Pentagon and an inter-departmental report issued last month.
$78 billion: Total American commitments made directly to Ukraine over most of last year and through January 15, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The Germany-based institute says its figure excludes funds that were over-reported, have gone unused, or actually go to Ukraine’s neighbors or to American domestic programs. Its tally doesn’t include more recent American pledges to Ukraine, such as for 31 M1 Abrams tanks.
$59 billion: Total commitments to Ukraine from the European Union, according to IFW Kiel.
$14 billion: Pledges and allocations from non-country donors, including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
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