Alexander Gravel, a PhD student in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, voices the very uncomfortable fact of Ukraine's massive losses.
In his 2026 article, "Irreversible Losses: Assessing Casualties in the Russo-Ukraine War," associated with a seminar on Russia at Finland's University of National Defense, Gravel challenges the traditional Western assessment that Russian forces suffered greater casualties than Ukrainian ones.
His research examines various categories of evidence, including recorded military deaths, casualty records, medical information, recruiting practices, combatant personnel, and the relative firepower of enemy armies. He claims that the resulting picture is significantly less positive for Ukraine than the accepted estimates indicate. This directly contradicts estimates by institutions such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which estimate that Russian losses significantly exceeded Ukrainian losses.
This absolute public report was conducted in February 2026 at the Finnish University of Military Defense.