MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) – In a major investigation, the independent media portals “Medusa” and “Mediazona” have estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed so far in Moscow’s war against Ukraine at 75,000. “120 deaths a day – that is the price that Russia pays for the attack on the neighboring country,” the Russian portal “Medusa” reported on Saturday. Officially, neither warring party provides information about soldiers killed in their own ranks.
The investigative journalists said they had derived their results from the evaluation of a database for inheritance matters, from the death register and statistical information, as well as from information from surviving relatives. “This is not an exact number, this is a statistical estimate,” it said. The exact figure could range between 66,000 and 88,000 dead.
The investigative journalists also contradicted Western information about the losses on the Russian side, which were higher. Ukraine, for example, puts the number of Russian losses at more than 400,000, including dead and injured. The value is about twice as high as that of “Medusa” and “Mediazona”, which also assume 130,000 injured Russian soldiers.
The analysis continued that 20,000 Russian criminals released from prison alone were killed in the fighting in Ukraine. In contrast, the number of fighters killed among the approximately 300,000 reservists drafted into a controversial mobilization in 2022 is estimated at 16,000.
In the long report, the analysts go into detail about their methodology for creating the numbers and graphics. And they mention the anonymous project UALosses, which lists around 47,000 names of killed Ukrainian soldiers. Almost all deaths were verified during a random check, it said. In Ukraine there is overall more access to sources, which is why the data set is better than that for Russia.
Regarding the ratio of those killed on both sides, analysts said that recent statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj were probably exaggerated. Accordingly, there would not be five Russian soldiers killed for every dead Ukrainian defender, but perhaps at most two. “To win the war of attrition, Ukraine must not only inflict losses on the Russian army, but also try to reduce its own losses,” it said. Saturday was the 2nd anniversary of the start of the war./mau/DP/jha