Journalists confirmed the death of almost 39,500 Russians in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at least 39,424 Russian servicemen have died. This is stated in the next summary of the Russian service of the BBC and Mediazon. Journalists emphasize that these are only the dead whose names and places of burial have been established through open sources. The real number of Russian casualties may be much higher.

Since the last report, on December 1, 1,163 names have been added to the list of the dead. The increase in casualties is caused primarily by the ongoing intense fighting in the Avdeevka area near Donetsk. Among the new dead are three officers in the rank of lieutenant colonel and above. All of them were connected with aviation, but died on the ground during shelling or during mine explosions.

Most funerals come to the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, as well as to Bashkiria and Buryatia. The large number of reports about the dead from the Krasnodar region and the Moscow region is explained, among other things, by the fact that there volunteers go around the cemeteries and photograph the burials of the military – that is, the greater number of casualties becomes public knowledge.

The number of casualties mobilized during the entire war is 4,787 people. 4338 dead – volunteers, 7247 – prisoners recruited to the front from the colonies.

• The Russian service of the BBC and “Mediazon” keep a count of the number of dead since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. They use only open data: official documents, messages from officials and mass media, publications of close relatives, and data from cemeteries. Journalists warn that these data are far from complete.
• Russia and Ukraine do not disclose war losses. The Ministry of Defense of Russia last reported on the total number of casualties on September 21 last year, announcing the death of 5,937 people. A relatively independent assessment of Ukrainian losses was last given in the spring. Then in the documents leaked online, supposedly containing the data of American intelligence, it was reported that Washington estimated the losses of the Ukrainian army at 15.5–17.5 thousand people killed and 109–113 thousand wounded.