Over 163,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine identified by media investigation
Russian independent media outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC Russian service, has confirmed the identities of 163,606 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine.
Since the media outlets' last update in mid-December, the names of 7,445 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties.
The journalists note that the actual figures are likely significantly higher, as their verified information comes from public sources such as obituaries, posts by relatives, regional media reports, and statements from local authorities.
The confirmed death toll now includes nearly 54,000 volunteers, nearly 20,000 recruited prisoners, and 16,500 mobilized soldiers, according to the media outlets. Over 6,300 officers have also been confirmed to have been killed.
In August 2025, Mediazona, in collaboration with independent Russian outlet Meduza, released a report estimating that an estimated 220,000 Russians have been killed in the country's war against Ukraine — although that number has grown significantly since.
Moscow and Kyiv rarely officially report their losses. Ukraine estimates that Russia's overall casualties during the full-scale war have surpassed 1,200,000.
Despite the heavy losses, Russia has been able to make marginal advances in Ukraine's front line region as it is able to offset its casualties through fresh contract soldiers. The Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState reported that Russian forces occupied 4,336 square kilometers (1,674 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in 2025, accounting for less than 1% of the country
In turn, Kyiv has faced increasingly serious manpower shortages, particularly among infantry units holding the front line. In a rare report, Ukraine's new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said on Jan. 14 that two million Ukrainians are wanted for evading mobilization, and another 200,000 soldiers are absent without official leave (AWOL), as infantry units continue to struggle to refill heavy losses.
As of Jan. 17, Ukraine's General Staff estimates that Russia has lost 1,225,590 troops in Ukraine since the start of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, which includes those injured, killed, and missing. The numbers are largely in line with estimates made by Western intelligence agencies.
The outlet published the complete list of identified casualties for the first time in February, marking three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the publication, volunteers manually enter and verify each record to prevent duplicate entries in the database.
