Based on open sources, the BBC managed to establish the names of 24,005 Russian soldiers who died during the war in Ukraine. A third of all these casualties are attributable to those who were not associated with the army before the start of the invasion – volunteers, conscripts, prisoners and newly recruited PMC employees.
Over the past two weeks, the BBC, together with Mediazona (recognized as a ‘foreign agent’ in Russia) and a team of volunteers, have learned the names of another 1,361 dead, which is still higher than the average number. of confirmed people. weekly losses in 2022.
We are only talking about the data that we manage to find and verify from open sources, that is, the real number of losses is certainly even higher.
We assume that our list may contain at least half as many names of dead people as people actually buried in Russia. We came to this conclusion by studying the situation in the cemeteries of more than 65 Russian settlements over the past 15 months.
Therefore, according to the most conservative estimate, in total, during the invasion of Ukraine, Russia could have lost 48,000 people killed.
Russia’s losses, taking into account those disabled due to injury or death, could be at least 216,000.
This figure is based on the observations of the American Center for Naval Analysis, according to which, for each Russian soldier who died during the war in Ukraine, on average about three and a half years were injured.
This figure does not include those who fought alongside Russia as part of the “people’s militias” of Donetsk and Luhansk. Moreover, it is not possible to establish even approximately the number of missing soldiers.
The main trends of this year remain:
The highest number of casualties in recent months have occurred in detachments made up of convicts. We now know the names of 4315 dead prisoners.
The loss of prisoners is significantly higher than the figures we have established. Many of the dead are not known until local residents discover another cemetery with dozens of graves marked with Wagner PMC crosses and wreaths.
From open sources, we know of the death of 2293 mobilized Russians – 60% of them have died since December 1. This may indicate that people called up from civilian life were actively involved in the attempted winter offensive of the Russian forces.
The Sverdlovsk region and the Krasnodar Territory continue to lead in terms of the number of confirmed victims.
Russia continues to lose highly trained personnel at the front, including officers. In total, since the beginning of the invasion, 2063 officers have been killed.
We continue to collect data on deceased military personnel. If you would like to share information on this topic, please email bbcrussian@bbc.co.uk or contact us via the link.
How do we feel
Every day in Russia more and more new names of the dead and photographs of the funeral are published. Most often, names are given by heads of Russian regions or representatives of district administrations, local media and educational institutions where the deceased once studied, as well as relatives.
The BBC, Mediazona and a team of volunteers are reviewing this data and adding it to the list we have had since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Source: delfi
