More than 400,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine war

More than 400,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the nearly five years since Russia began its full-scale military operation in Ukraine, a sensational claim made after analyzing leaked data from the country's state statistics agency, Rosstat.

The data was collected by the Belarusian anti-government hacker group 'Cyber ​​Partisans' and the Ukrainian hacker organization 'Silent Crow'. The database, which includes more than 11 million death certificates, was later handed over to several media outlets, including the British newspaper The Guardian.

According to the leaked data, 412,576 death certificates directly mention war-related deaths. These deaths were confirmed by official cause-of-death codes or written accounts of wars and military operations.

The figures highlight Russia's heavy casualties in the war in Ukraine, which shows no sign of abating. New peace talks are set to begin this week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

On November 1, two hacker groups reported a cyberattack on Rosstat's database. The information was later released over the weekend. Rosstat acknowledged the cyberattack but denied that any sensitive data was stolen.

The leaked database provides a detailed picture of Russian casualties on the battlefield. The Russian government has long tried to keep this information secret. The country has not officially released any military death toll figures since the first few months of the war. Moscow considers military casualties a state secret.

The Guardian was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the entire database, but the death toll is broadly consistent with other international accounts.

Last September, a British intelligence agency estimated that nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona has identified the names of around 286,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine by analyzing government documents, condolence messages posted on social media, and grave photos. The outlet believes the actual number of dead is closer to 500,000.

Yannis Kluge, head of the Russia and Eurasia department at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the leaked information was credible and contained a lot of detailed information.

He said this was the largest leak of information on the number of Russian military casualties to date.

However, the leaked figures may also underestimate the actual number of casualties, as many soldiers are still missing and many have not been identified.

Kluge said it takes a long time to include a soldier's death in government records. The process typically takes about six months.

According to him, the actual number of Russian soldiers killed in the current war in Ukraine is more likely to be closer to 500,000 than 400,000.

Another important aspect of the leaked information is that the war's toll has not been evenly distributed across all regions of Russia. The country's poorer and more remote regions have seen a disproportionate number of soldiers killed, meaning that the war's greatest human toll is being borne by the people of Russia's backward regions.

Reference: The Guardian