Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least 24,005 Russian soldiers have died at the front, 2,293 of them mobilized. Their identity was established by the journalists of Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service.
Based on data from open sources (obituaries in the media, messages on social networks of relatives of the dead, and so on – NV), journalists from publications and volunteers have established that 1,361 Russian servicemen have died in battles in Ukraine over the past two weeks.
The largest number of casualties in recent months have been in units made up of recruited convicts – investigators have verified 4,315 dead prisoners.
Of the 2,293 mobilized Russians who died in Ukraine, more than half died between December 1, 2022, the date when the Russian army tried to develop an offensive in several areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
At the same time, in terms of the number of losses confirmed by journalists among the regions of Russia, the Sverdlovsk Region and the Krasnodar Territory continue to lead.
The real death toll, according to investigators, may be several times higher. In addition, the number of missing and captured is unknown.
Earlier, the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin, in an interview with media technologist Konstantin Dolgov, said that 20,000 Wagnerites died in Ukraine during the entire war, half of them were recruited prisoners.
In turn, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council, citing US intelligence data, said that since the beginning of 2023, Russia has lost 20,000 dead in Ukraine, half of them Wagnerians. According to him, a significant part of the losses fell on Bakhmut. About 80,000 more Russian soldiers were wounded in battles in this and other directions.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation does not disclose data on the number of soldiers, volunteers and prisoners killed in the war with Ukraine. The last time the agency announced the total number of personnel losses in September 2022 was 5937 dead.
“From 130 to 270 thousand killed and wounded, these are only the military.” Ruslan Leviev from CIT – about the losses of Russia during the year of the war in Ukraine:
