At least 47,000 Russian soldiers have died since the outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to an analysis carried out by independent Russian media Meduza.
Based on the growing number of open inheritance proceedings, the media estimates that approximately 22,000 soldiers died between 24 February and the end of 2022. It calculates that another 25,000 soldiers died between the start of 2023 and the end of May.
This data appears to match the current Russian excess male mortality rate, a figure published by the statistics agency Rosstat, at least for 2022. Figures for 2023 will not be available until June 2024.
There are no official figures on the number of Russian soldiers killed. Russia's Defence Ministry in Moscow last admitted that 5,937 of its own soldiers had been killed at the end of September 2022. The actual number is most likely much higher.
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According to Ukraine, more than 230,000 Russians were killed, but this figure is considered to be an overstatement. Western intelligence agencies estimate that there were more than 100,000 Russian casualties, but there is no hard evidence for that number either.
