BBC investigation: 66,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine

The BBC's Russian Service compiles a list of known soldier deaths in conjunction with the independent media outlet Medazona, using open-source data. Previously, in April, they announced that they had found more than 50,000 names of dead Russians.

"As of August 30, we know the names of 66,471 Russian soldiers who died in the war," the media outlet reported.

In the past four weeks, the list has grown by more than 4,600, it said, while stressing that this is not a final figure as the deaths of many soldiers are not made public.

Anastasia Alexieva, a journalist, stressed that the latest figures on the number of dead "are not related to Ukraine's offensive in the Kursk region or Russia's offensive in the east."

That's because researchers are still working with the accumulated death reports, she said.

The report said 172 conscripts serving national service died in the war, with the highest figures in the first months.

"These figures may be inaccurate, however, as conscripts can sign contracts with the professional army and some may have done so without telling their relatives," said editor Dmitry Treshchanin.

According to the breakdown, the region with the highest absolute number of deaths - 2,578 - is the southern republic of Bashkortostan, which has a large Muslim population.

The largest age group overall is 33-35 years (6 877 deaths).

More than 12,000 of the dead were prisoners after Russia tried to recruit prisoners by promising them freedom after a period on the front line.

"Recently, however, the number has declined. Apparently the recruitment campaign is not as active," Alexieva said.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there were nearly 700,0000 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

Moscow rarely talks about the losses it has suffered in what it calls a "special military operation."

In September 2022 The Defense Ministry reported that 5,937 soldiers had died in the fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in February that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the first two years of the war. | BGNES