Secret losses: The official numbers of soldiers killed in the Ukraine war are controversial. Journalists try to shed light on the matter.
Kiev – The official numbers of soldiers killed in the Ukraine War vary greatly between Russia and Ukraine, with the actual number probably somewhere in between. Ukrainian media are reporting over 300,000 “lost” Russian fighters, which could include the dead as well as the injured, while the Kremlin has been very reluctant to publish official figures since the start of the war and, if at all, only confirms isolated deaths from its “special military operation”.
In order to obtain a more realistic assessment of the losses of the Russian armed forces, a group of journalists from news portals critical of the Kremlin are following Mediazona and BBC News Russia With the help of volunteers from the Russian population, the information circulating on social media, local Russian newspapers, cemetery records and regional politicians’ news channels about confirmed deaths has been circulating for months. Accordingly, the number of confirmed fallen soldiers is now over 35,000.
Research team on Russia’s losses: 35,780 fallen fighters known by name
As of last Friday (November 3rd), the research team knew the names of 35,780 people who died as soldiers in the Ukraine conflict. Compared to the data on Russia’s losses, which Mediazona and BBC News Russia published two weeks earlier on October 20th, the number of fallen soldiers increased by 923. According to the report, this corresponds to the “average result of the past few months”.
The largest group of confirmed fallen soldiers that could be confirmed through the research, 6,691 people, were former prisoners who were recruited in many Russian regions, for example by the Wagner Group and its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a suspected assassination attempt were. In addition, 4,232 of the dead were fighters who had been drafted into military service as part of mobilization operations. 2,647 of the confirmed dead fighters also belonged to private combat troops such as Wagner.
Documenting Russia’s Losses: Fatal Fighting in Bakhmut and Avdiivka
The documentation of the confirmed losses, which is provided on the Mediazona portal with a lot of additional information about origin, military rank and dates of death, also enables conclusions to be drawn about where many of the soldiers fell in the war against Ukraine. One of the most devastating battles in the Ukrainian War for the Russian military was still the Battle of Bakhmut. However, the battle for control of Avdiivka north of Donetsk, now dubbed the “second Bakhmut”, is not yet reflected in the official figures, according to the report Mediazona.
However, as the research team emphasizes, the number of confirmed 35,780 casualties is far below the actual number, which should significantly exceed the number of confirmed deaths among Russian soldiers and fighters. This is how the online portals critical of the Kremlin came about Mediazona and Meduza in another data research as early as July of this year, an estimate of at least 47,000 Russian fighters under the age of 50 were killed in the Ukraine war. This figure is based on statistical calculations based on publicly available inheritance data.
In addition, military figures also allow estimates of the number of seriously injured, reported Mediazona in July. Based on data showing how many soldiers were discharged from service due to injuries, the total number of long-term forces lost to combat operations could be well over 125,000.
Machine assistance was used for this article written by the editorial team. The article was carefully checked by our employee Sandra Kathe before publication.
#Propaganda #Reality #Russias #Hidden #Losses #Revealed