“Journalists of the BBC Russian service and Mediazona, together with a team of volunteers, have confirmed the names of 204,626 russian servicemen killed during russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The data is based on open sources”, - the Telegram channel Radio Liberty reported on March 20.
It is noted that the share of volunteers (75,288), mobilized personnel (18,226), and prisoners (22,207) as of March 2026 amounted to 57% of all the dead. All these people, as researchers note, were not affiliated with the armed forces at the start of the war.
Journalists are aware of the deaths of 7,009 officers, including 494 lieutenant colonels, 164 colonels, and 13 generals, including Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Andrei Golovatsky, who had been sentenced to a term in a penal colony.
In February, the list was supplemented with the names of more than 35,000 people. Most of them had previously been listed as missing. More than 80% of those who were listed as missing and whose deaths were confirmed, as noted, died in 2024 and 2025.
Researchers link the increase in the number of missing persons over the past two years to changes in the nature of hostilities, including the mass use of FPV drones on the front line, the expansion of minefield areas, and the increase in the number of russian offensive operations in “gray zones”, which complicates the evacuation and search for the bodies of the dead.
Researchers note that the actual losses of the russian side may be higher than the data they provide. Experts suggest that their data may cover from 45% to 65% of the real number of the dead. Russian authorities do not publish official statistics on losses.