The names of 4515 Russian soldiers who died in the war in Ukraine have been established, of which 17% are officers. The list of names is maintained by the BBC Russian Service and Mediazona together with a team of volunteers.
The maximum number of military dead is in Dagestan (231). At the same time, not all cases are reported publicly: journalists find evidence of military funerals in cemeteries in various cities of Russia, the death of which was not announced by local authorities. Only in the last two weeks, journalists managed to establish the graves of 20 dead servicemen, whose names were not publicly disclosed. They are buried in the cemeteries of Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Maykop and other Russian cities. The list of confirmed deaths is not final, it may contain 40-60% fewer names of the dead than actually buried in Russia.
According to experts, the loss of specialists may affect the effectiveness of combat in Ukraine by Russian units. Of the 4,515 Russian military dead, 773 (17%) are officers, including 205 senior officers (generals, colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors). Among the dead officers, combat pilots also stand out, the training of one sniper pilot can take from 15 to 17 years and costs about $ 12-14 million, RIA Novosti wrote. During the war, Russia lost at least 49 military pilots (including navigators and flight mechanics).
In early June, the BBC Russian Service, citing a high-ranking representative of Western intelligence agencies, claimed that the number of Russian military dead during the war in Ukraine could reach 20,000. A week earlier, the official said that the number of victims on the Russian side was about 15,000.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense has twice reported on the death of Russian servicemen – according to the latest data, 1,351 soldiers died. At the same time, on May 30, the BBC Russian Service found out the names of 3,052 Russian soldiers who died in the war in Ukraine. The publication clarifies that these are incomplete figures, since the media and regional authorities do not name all the dead, even if their bodies were delivered to their families and buried. The text says that in some cities, entire alleys have been allocated for the burial of those killed in Ukraine.
Before that, the Proekt publication published an investigation in which it established the names of 166 Russian commanders who give orders in the war in Ukraine. The list includes 72 generals and admirals, 69 colonels, 16 lieutenant colonels and 5 active state advisers of the Russian Federation of the 1st class, while every eighth of the officers is connected with Ukraine (has relatives, was born or studied there). At least 20 identified commanders from the list had already died by mid-May, the journalists specified.