War in Ukraine: Media claim to have identified more than 50 thousand killed Russian soldiers

The BBC Russian Service and the Russian website Mediazona reported on Wednesday that they had identified more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Their counts, published in a joint investigation and terminated on April 7, 2024, go on sale. from the use of certain information, for example, official press releases, information published in the media and social networks, or collected when visiting graves in cemeteries.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia have published a tally of their casualties since the war began, and both media outlets caution that their tallies are not intended to be exhaustive.

As of late February, Kyiv estimated the number of soldiers killed at 31,000, while the Russian army has only rarely reported its military losses, and these figures are considered largely an underestimate.

The Kremlin remains silent

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday cited the “state secrets law” and the “special regime” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to justify the lack of official reports of Russian military casualties.

Last August, the American daily newspaper The New York Times, citing American officials, estimated Russian military losses at 120 thousand people. On January 29, in a written response to the parliamentarian, British Defense Minister James Heappie estimated Russia’s losses at more than 350 thousand killed and wounded. .

In their investigation, the BBC Russian Service and Mediazona focused particular attention on the fate of prisoners recruited to fight at the front, which is “a decisive factor for the success of the cannon fodder (strategy)” of the Russian army, they note.

Tens of thousands of prisoners were recruited in Russian prisons in exchange for the promise of release, in particular by the Wagner paramilitary group, as well as the regular army. According to a two-media study of a sample of more than 1,000 prisoners, half of those drafted directly into the Russian army died within two months of being sent to the front. Those recruited by Wagner (until February 2023) died within three months of enlistment.

Both media also note that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died in the second year of the conflict, “illustrating the enormous human cost of the territorial gains” made by Russia, especially in the Donetsk region since January 2023, during the Battle of Bakhmut in the spring of 2023 or even during a large-scale offensive, launched last fall and lasting four months, to capture the city of Avdeevka.