Recent strategic insights from Russia Matters and the Council on Foreign Relations indicate that Russia has suffered losses of between 350,000 and 500,000 soldiers in its ongoing conflict with Ukraine, marking the most devastating military defeat for Russia since the Second World War. However, experts caution that this enormous human toll does not signal an end to hostilities, as Putin has reframed the war as a 'holy war,' with high-ranking Kremlin officials portraying him as a katechon, a religious leader combating malevolent forces. The analysis warns that for the United States and its eight NATO allies positioned on Russia's eastern border, a backed-into-a-corner Putin with a 'holy war' ideology is more inclined, rather than less, to consider nuclear escalation.
