It’s been three years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, President Donald Trump is throwing future U.S. backing for Kyiv into doubt, holding direct talks with Russia, attacking President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and complaining about the cost of U.S. aid for the Eastern European country.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and altered Europe’s security landscape dramatically.
As the war enters its fourth year, here’s a snapshot of the human, territorial and financial costs, by the numbers.
Men fill the graves of Ukrainian soldiers at a cemetery on the outskirts of Kherson in 2023. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)
10.6 million
That’s the number of Ukrainians who have been displaced, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It includes 3.7 million who have moved inside the country and 6.9 million abroad, most of whom are in Russia, Germany and Poland. More than 2 million homes, or about 10% of Ukraine’s housing stock, have been destroyed, the agency said.
1.5 million
The number of Ukrainian children at risk of long-term mental health consequences from the war, according to the UNHCR.
A Ukrainian commander with the call sign Frenchman and his crew with a U.S.-provided Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the Zaporizhzhia region in 2023. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
153,000
An estimate of the minimum number of people — soldiers and civilians — killed in the war. This is almost certainly a significant undercount of the toll because of the difficulty of confirming deaths in a war zone, with both Russia and Ukraine suspected of dramatically underplaying their losses.
At least 12,654 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, according to figures verified by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which says the true toll “is likely considerably higher,” particularly given the near impossibility of confirming deaths in areas occupied by Russia.
More than 95,000 members of the Russian military have been killed, according to researchers from the Russian media outlet Mediazona and the BBC Russian service, who have tracked verified publicly available sources. Zelenskyy told NBC’s “Meet the Press” this month that Ukraine has lost 46,000 soldiers, with “tens of thousands more who are missing in action or are in captivity.”
20
The approximate percentage of Ukrainian territory under Russian control. Before the full-scale invasion, Russia controlled Crimea, which the Kremlin invaded and illegally annexed in 2014, and the separatist-held areas of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, part of the Donbas region. The 600-mile front line of the war has changed little since late 2022, with the exception of the roughly 200 square miles of territory Ukraine now controls in Russia’s Kursk region.
George Keburia says goodbye to his wife, Maya, and children as they board a train to Lviv, Ukraine, in Odessa in March 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
25
The conscription age in Ukraine, having been lowered from 27 in April to boost the military ranks for the war effort. So far, many inside the country have been resistant to lowering the conscription age to 18, saying young people are critical for the nation’s future. Russia has also expanded its military force, raising the top age for compulsory service from 27 to 30 in July 2023; its minimum age remains 18.
$65.9 billion
The amount the United States has spent so far on military assistance since Russia’s invasion, according to State Department figures. It brings the total to $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. A January congressional report also noted that Washington appropriated nearly $174.2 billion from 2022 to 2024 in “response to Russia’s war against Ukraine,” a figure that includes assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank and other agencies.
55
The number of times the United States has used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority since August 2021 to provide Ukraine military assistance worth approximately $27.6 billion from Defense Department stockpiles. Using the PDA had been previously capped at $100 million, with some exceptions, but in fiscal year 2022, it was raised to $11 billion, to $14.5 billion in fiscal 2023 and to $7.8 billion in fiscal 2024 to provide supplies for Ukraine.
12
The number of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and munitions the United States has sent to Ukraine, according to the State Department. It has also sent three Patriot air defense batteries and munitions and more than 40 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. Washington has sent Ukraine 31 Abrams tanks, more than 400 Stryker armored personnel carriers and over 300 Bradley Fighting Vehicles.
300,000
The number of soldiers European Union nations, along with the United Kingdom and Norway, would have to mobilize to defend themselves against Russia without U.S. backing, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
$279 billion
The total amount of aid Ukraine has received from donor governments over the course of the war, according to figures from the Kiel Institute, in military, financial and humanitarian assistance. When it comes to military aid, the United States and Europe have provided similar levels of support, but Europe has “long surpassed” Washington when it comes to financial and humanitarian donations, about $73 billion to $52 billion, the institute noted.
57
The percentage of Ukrainians who trust Zelenskyy, according to a survey conducted this month by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a prominent Ukrainian polling organization. That’s an increase of 5 percentage points from a survey in December. On Feb. 18, Trump falsely claimed that the Ukrainian leader’s approval rating was at 4%, one in a string of misleading attacks as his administration attempts to strike a deal to end the war.
