Four years on, Moscow bears the cost of its Ukraine miscalculation

Four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, the Kremlin’s plan to quickly seize the country proved catastrophically naive, leaving Moscow battered, financially strained and increasingly isolated. Estimates cited by CSIS suggest nearly 1.2 million Russian personnel have been killed or wounded, while Ukrainian casualties run into hundreds of thousands. The war’s toll has eroded Russia’s wartime gains, sparked inflation and shortages at home, and pushed Moscow to deepen ties with China as Western sanctions and NATO expansion tighten its international standing.