Rising toll: Over 61,000 russian soldiers dead in Ukraine conflict
Over 61,000 Russian soldiers have died during the war in Ukraine, according to the findings of Mediazona and the Russian branch of the BBC. Journalists emphasise that the number of obituaries is growing so quickly that they do not have time to count them.
The Russians do not provide information on how many soldiers have died on the front in Ukraine. However, since the beginning of the war, Mediazona journalists and the BBC's Russian section have been investigating this. They analyse obituaries that appear throughout Russia and verify whether they concern soldiers who were sent to war.
According to the latest findings, as of 2 August, journalists counted 61,831 Russian military personnel who have perished in the war.
As Mediazona points out, in just the last two weeks, over 2,000 people have been added to the list. However, the scale of losses in recent months is likely much larger.
"Due to our detailed analysis of information on losses, we have accumulated a 'debt' of several thousand obituaries that we found but have not had time to verify yet," Mediazona reported.
What is the true scale of losses?
Journalists assure that in the coming weeks, they will provide the true number of casualties after processing the obituaries that they have pending.
According to estimates, at least half of the killed were not associated with the military before the start of the war in Ukraine. Some of them were convicts sent to the front, others were volunteers and mobilised individuals.
The data provided by journalists is only part of the true scale of Russia's losses. In April, it was estimated that over 120,000 Russians might have died on the front.
