Through open source research, Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of 40,599 Russian soldiers who had been killed since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since Mediazona's last update on Dec. 15, the names of 1,100 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties.
The journalists specify that the actual figures are likely considerably higher since the information they have verified so far comes from public sources, including obituaries, posts by relatives, news in regional media, and reports by local authorities.
Since Russia's full-scare invasion began, almost 3,000 officers, with 341 holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or higher have been killed in combat in Ukraine. In contrast, there have been nearly 4,915 casualties among newly recruited Russian soldiers.
A majority of those killed in action come from Krasnodar, Sverdlovsk, Bashkiria, Chelyabinsk, and Moscow regions, as well as the Buryatia republic.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with The Economist published on Jan. 1 that Russian forces are suffering heavy losses: "Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away."
Olena Goncharova
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