The Russian Defense Ministry stated that there is no data on the number of civilians killed in the war against Ukraine. At the same time, she called publications with such information "knowingly false." Sibir.Realii writes about this with reference to lawyer Marina Yankina, who defends journalist Andrei Novashov in the case of “fakes” (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Novashov is accused of disseminating "deliberately false information" because of his publications about civilian casualties as a result of Russian attacks on Mariupol. The journalist's defense claims that the accusation is incorrect, since this information cannot be refuted. During the entire war, the Russian authorities did not publish data on civilian casualties in Ukraine.
On December 14, Yankina received a response from Igor Dylevsky, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff. It said that the Ministry of Defense has no data on the dead civilians.
On November 30, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that 20,000 civilians had died in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. According to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak, this estimate is incorrect: he claims that in fact this number is much higher.