Russia lost 42,860 men in July, its worst month this year. That’s up from 31,700 in January

Russia is losing men faster than at any point this year. Russian occupation forces lost 42,860 personnel in July 2026, the highest monthly figure since the start of the year, Ukraine's General Staff reported on 1 August.

The toll works out to roughly 1,380 Russian soldiers killed or wounded every day in July. Across the first seven months of 2026, Russian personnel losses reached 238,650, per the General Staff, the running cost of an offensive that has gained little ground.

The monthly toll has climbed almost without pause

The figures show a steady rise throughout the year. Russia's monthly losses ran from about 31,700 in January down to 26,100 in February, then climbed through the spring: roughly 32,000 in March, 33,000 in April, 33,800 in May, 39,300 in June, and 42,860 in July.

After February, the line only goes up. Each month from March onward costs Russia more men than the one before, and July's total is more than a third higher than June's was just two months into that climb.

The losses buy little ground

The rising toll reflects how Russia fights, not how much it gains. Russia has spent 2026 pressing costly infantry-led assaults across the front, trading men for meters near Pokrovsk, Kostiantynivka, and in the north, and the climbing casualty curve is the price of that method rather than evidence of a breakthrough.

The numbers are the General Staff's own count and cannot be independently verified, and Ukraine reports enemy losses without detailing its own. But the trend they describe, a war growing more lethal for the attacker month by month, matches what independent analysts have tracked through 2026.

The cost is the point

Moscow has bet that it can outlast Ukraine by feeding in more men than Ukraine can, accepting losses that any other army would treat as catastrophic.

Whether that bet holds depends on Russia's ability to keep replacing 40,000 men a month, drawn from recruitment bonuses, prison enlistment, and the quiet mobilization Russia has avoided calling one. July shows the bill still rising.