- Researchers have identified more than 30,000 Russians killed fighting in Ukraine.
- More than 1,300 dead soldiers were identified in the last two weeks alone, they said.
Publicly, Russian officials have admitted to losing no more than 6,000 men since last year's all-out invasion of Ukraine. But researchers working with the BBC say they have now identified — by name — more than 30,000 dead Russian soldiers, including more than 1,300 in the last two weeks alone.
That Russia has suffered huge losses in Ukraine is undeniable, evidenced by Moscow's push to expand the draft and recruit from the incarcerated.
In May, the White House said Russia had likely suffered more than 100,000 casualties, a figure that includes the injured. The British government, earlier in the year, said as many as 60,000 Russians had been killed in action.
But Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet that has partnered with the BBC's Russian service, says its figure of 30,000 dead, while certainly an undercount, is not a mere estimate. Each number represents a soldier with a name.
Their death is considered "confirmed" if researchers can link it to a rare official statement or, more often, open source data, such as social media posts by relatives that include corroborating information, like burial dates and photos of cemetery plots.
In recent weeks, corresponding with Ukraine's counteroffensive, these researchers have noticed an uptick in casualties among Russian troops operating rocket launchers and artillery, Mediazona said, including sizable losses in the Zaporizhzhia region, home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant.
Prisoners, who have been recruited by the Wagner paramilitary group as well as the Russian military itself, appear to have suffered the greatest losses since the war began. More than 5,600 inmates have been identified as killed in Ukraine. The next highest is draftees, with more than 3,100 confirmed dead.
At least 2,400 Russian officers have also been identified as killed, according to the group, including 284 who were considered "high ranking."
For comparison, a leaked US military assessment earlier year said that as many as 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the war began.
The enormous human cost of Russia's invasion has been impossible for some of its military leaders to deny. In a recent video address, Col. Gen. Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of Russia's elite VDV Airborne Forces, admitted that 8,500 of his troops had been wounded in Ukraine, all of whom had either returned to the front or refused to leave in the first place. He did not say how many had been killed.
Although Teplinsky's remarks were an apparent attempt to boost morale, they were soon scrubbed from Russian state media.
Russian officials prefer to deflect questions about the human cost of their "special military operation."
After a separate analysis last month found that, as of May 2023, at least 47,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine — a finding based on analyzing excess mortality rates in Russia — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters he was unfamiliar with the widely publicized report, claiming that the only accurate source for such information was the defense ministry.
In September 2022, that ministry acknowledged losing 5,937 soldiers.
At least 9,000 civilians have also been killed in Ukraine, according to the United Nations, most in areas targeted by Russian forces.
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