Over 135,000 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 135,100 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine.
The publications' latest report covers the period of Feb. 24, 2022 to Oct. 9, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of September, 2,485 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
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, memorial community tree-plantings, regional media reports, statements from local authorities, among other sources.
The reported death toll now includes 38,200 volunteers, 18,450 recruited prisoners, and 15,200 mobilized soldiers, according to the media outlets. Over 5,800 officers have also been confirmed to have been killed.
In August, 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 since.
The average age of the dead soldiers was 35.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the figures reported by the publications.
Moscow and Kyiv rarely officially report their losses. Ukraine estimates that Russia's overall casualties during the full-scale war have surpassed 1 million.
In a briefing to reporters on Aug. 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russian losses are approximately three times greater than that of Ukraine, without specifying the total number of losses suffered.
Despite the heavy losses, Russia has been able to make advances in Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine's east as it is able to offset its casualties through fresh contract soldiers. In turn, Kyiv faces increasingly serious manpower shortages, particularly among infantry units holding the front line.
As of Oct. 11, Ukraine's General Staff estimates that Russia has lost 1,121,570 troops in Ukraine since the start of the war on Feb. 24, 2022. 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.
