The BBC Russian service together with Mediazona and volunteers identified the names of 80 973 Russian servicemen who died during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
More than half of them were not connected with the army at the beginning of the war. According to the BBC, many military volunteers die within two to four weeks of being sent to the front.
Their share is now 22% of the total number of confirmed losses of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Last year — in November 2023 — volunteers made up only 14% of that number.
On the other hand, the share of convicts sent to the front from places of deprivation of liberty is decreasing. In 2023, they accounted for 26% of all losses, and now only 18%. Units consisting of prisoners, as before, take on themselves part of the combat load.
The massive use of such a population allowed Russia to maintain its offensive potential without additional damage to the economy. The fact is that before that the convicts did not take an active part in the life of society and were not specialists.
Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and the Sverdlovsk Region of the Russian Federation are among the leaders in terms of the number of confirmed losses. The latter rose to the top of the list after the beginning of mass recruitment to the front from the colonies. There are many industrial enterprises and large correctional colonies operating in the region, from which prisoners were actively taken to the PMC "Wagner" and then to the Ministry of Defense.
Tatarstan is in the top three regions in terms of the number of confirmed losses in 2024. This is primarily due to the work of local volunteers who collect data on the dead. Friends and relatives of war participants publish information about the dead on social networks. These are often cases that are not publicized by the authorities.
So, the official data on the number of dead in Tatarstan can be as close as possible to the real numbers. Residents of the regions of Siberia told the BBC that local authorities put pressure on journalists and relatives of the dead, urging them not to write about the losses.
It is important to take into account the population in different regions. The media listed the number of confirmed deaths for every 10 000 men aged 16 to 61. In per capita terms, Tyva, Buryatia and Altai are ahead of the number of losses. The lowest death rates are in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
At least 52% of the casualties were people who were not connected to the Russian army at the beginning of the war. The real figure is much higher, the publication writes.
- In July 2023, the Russian media established that the number of Russians killed in the war before the start of Ukraineʼs offensive operation was between 40 000 and 55 000.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.