Number of Russian deaths in Ukraine hits 70,000 amid Putin's devastating 'meat grinder' attacks: report

• More than 70,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine, a new report says.
• The BBC and Mediazona gathered the information from death notices and obituaries.

The number of Russian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the invasion has topped 70,000, according to a new report.

The BBC citing data from Russian independent media outlet Mediazona said that at least 70,112 Russians have now been killed in Ukraine, with most of the dead being civilian volunteers who signed up to fight in the war after the 2022 invasion.

According to the outlets, the figure was compiled from obituaries, death notices, information on graves, and other public information, such as official reports.

The outlets said they checked that the information had been shared by authorities or relatives of the deceased.

They said that the real death figure is likely to be much higher, as the sum does not include those whose deaths were not publicly announced or those fighting in militias.

The BBC said that of the deaths it recorded, 13,781 were volunteers, making up about 20% of the total. Convicts recruited into the military made up 19% of deaths, whilst civilians mobilized into the military constituted 13% of deaths.

The report comes as Russia continues to send troops into high casualty, head-on, "meat grinder" assaults on Ukrainian positions to seize more territory in east Ukraine.

The attacks involve sending waves of troops to try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions or to expose their location.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine release official casualty figures, but Western intelligence estimates cited by The Wall Street Journal in September said that as many as 200,00 Russian troops may've been killed and around 400,000 wounded since the start of the war in Ukraine.

The publication said that confidential Ukrainian figures put the number of those killed at 80,000, and the number wounded at 400,000.

Because of Russia's much bigger population, the steep casualty figures are a more serious problem for Ukraine.

Russia has replenished its military by offering lucrative contracts and drafting prisoners in exchange for sentence reductions.

However, analysts believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is wary of launching another civilian military draft over concerns it could cause social unrest.

The invasion has become a grinding war of attrition, with drone surveillance and relentless artillery fire as well as Russian tactics resulting in steep casualties.

While Russia has made recent advances near the strategically important city of Pokrovsk, Ukraine has seized control of territory in Russia's Kursk province.