Journalists Identify 259,000 Names of Russian Military Personnel Killed in Action

Journalists have identified the names of 258,989 Russian military personnel eliminated during the war against Ukraine.

The BBC and Mediazona, along with volunteers, identified their identities using open-source data.

Recently, more than 10,000 new names have been added to the list, although typically about 5,000 to 6,000 are added during this period.

This increase is not linked to a sharp rise in the number of fatalities, but rather to the addition of names from leaked lists related to the exchange of bodies between Russia and Ukraine. The data was subsequently verified against official records.

As of September 21, journalists had also confirmed the deaths of nearly 7,700 officers from the Russian military and other security agencies.

Researchers estimate that these figures may account for between 45% and 65% of the actual number of fatalities. The Russian authorities do not publish official casualty figures.

Ukraine’s General Staff stated that as of September 21, Russia had suffered approximately 1,519,650 military casualties, including those killed and wounded, in the war. Over the previous 24 hours, Russian forces reportedly suffered about 1,660 casualties, killed and wounded.