Full toll of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, three years on

From thousands of deaths to millions forced to flee from their own country, Alicja Hagopian and Tom Watling report on the many real costs of Vladimir Putin's war in Europe

- Tom Watling

Three years after Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion, Ukraine still faces a very uncertain future.

Just one month after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the US president has thrown whatever hopes Kyiv had for future American support into chaos. In the last week alone he has launched repeated attacks on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, falsely branding him a “dictator” and wrongly accusing Ukraine of “starting” the war.

And so Ukraine now finds itself fighting a war on two fronts: the grind against the Russian invaders to the east, and the battle to keep Mr Trump on side to the west. Here, The Independent looks at the very real costs of three years of war in Europe – financially, militarily and on the lives of the men and women who continue to fight for their freedom.

The human cost in civilians and soldiers

In active wartime, it is difficult to accurately gauge the numbers of people who have died on either side. Conflict specialist nonprofit ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) estimates there have been around 153,000 Ukrainian and Russian casualties since the war began on 24 February 2022, based on over 140,000 individual news-reported events.

The UN Human Rights Office puts the number of civilian deaths at around 12,654, including at least 669 children. The UN says there have also been more than 29,000 civilians injured. Civilian casualties have increased by 30 per cent in the past year as a result of increased drone strikes, it adds.

An estimated 20,000 children have been abducted into Russia or Russian-occupied territory since the start of 2022, separated from their families and country. An investigation by