The BBC, together with the Russian newspaper Mediazona and a team of volunteers, managed to establish the names of 80,973 Russian soldiers who died during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The data was established through publications in the Russian official source or mass media, publications of relatives, or posts in other sources with photos of the burial. About it UNN reports with reference to the Russian service BBC.
Details
As noted, more than half of the identified dead were not associated with the army at the time of the start of the full-scale war.
The media point out that now there is a rapid increase in losses among Russian volunteer servicemen, many of whom die within two to four weeks after being sent to war. Volunteers include those who signed a contract after the start of a full-scale invasion. Their share now accounts for 22% of the total number of confirmed losses of the Russian side.
A year ago - in November 2023-volunteers accounted for only 14% of the total number of losses.
The share of convicts sent to the front from places of deprivation of Liberty, on the contrary, is decreasing. In November 2023, they accounted for 26% of all losses, and now - only 18%.
But units made up of prisoners are still located on the front line and take on some of the combat load, points out the BBC. it is noted that the large-scale use of prisoners at the front allowed the Russian authorities to temporarily solve several tasks at once.
First, sending prisoners supported the offensive potential of the Russian side, while not causing additional damage to the economy.
Those convicted before still did not actively participate in the life of society and were not qualified workers. This distinguishes them, for example, from the mobilized, whose departure has weakened a number of sectors of the economy
Now Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and the Sverdlovsk region are among the leaders in the number of confirmed losses. However, the situation in these regions varies significantly.
The Sverdlovsk region rose to the top of this list after the beginning of mobilization and mass recruitment to the front from the colonies. There are many industrial enterprises operating in the region, on the basis of which it was easier to conduct mobilization. Also in the region there are a number of large Correctional colonies, from which prisoners were actively taken to the front first by the Wagner PMC, and then by the Ministry of Defense.
Tatarstan entered the top three regions with the highest number of confirmed losses in 2024. It is noted that this is primarily due to the active work of local volunteers who collect data on the dead. Friends and relatives of war veterans send and publish information about the dead in local communities, often reporting cases that were not advertised by local authorities.
Thus, the number of dead from Tatarstan can be as close as possible to the real number of dead-natives of this Republic, writes the BBC. Data for other regions, on the contrary, is much less complete, since there are no such active volunteers there.
Residents of a number of regions of Siberia have repeatedly told the BBC about how local authorities put pressure on journalists and relatives of the victims, urging them to "once again not write" about the losses.