BBC releases the figure: How many soldiers has Russia lost so far in Ukraine?

More than 7,000 people who have fought in the Russian army have been killed so far in Ukraine. The figure is derived from data analyzed by the BBC. For the first time, civil volunteers who joined the armed forces after the start of the war already make up the largest number of people killed in the battlefield since the beginning of Russia's invasion in 2022.

Moscow does not provide information about war victims, but every day, the names of those killed in Ukraine, their necrologies and photos of their funerals are published throughout Russia in the media and social networks. BBC Russo and the independent website Mediazona have collected these names, along with names from other open sources, including official reports.

The BBC says it checked the information with the authorities or relatives of the victims and has been confirmed that they had died in the war. The new graves in the cemetery have also helped give the names of soldiers killed in Ukraine. They are usually marked with flags and wreaths sent by the defence ministry.

The BBC has identified the names of 70 112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, but the actual number is believed to be even higher. Some families do not disclose the death details of their relatives. Our “Analysis does not include names that we were unable to control, or deaths between the militias in Donnetsk and Luhansk occupied by Russia in eastern Ukraine” The BBC declares.

13781 victims were volunteers, (about 20%) causing their deaths to exceed other categories. The former prisoners who joined the war in exchange for their crimes had previously the highest number, but now they constitute 19% of all confirmed deaths. Furnished soldiers or citizens called to fight account for 13%.

Since October of last year, weekly deaths of volunteers have not dropped below 100, and in weeks more than 310 volunteers have registered. As for Ukraine, it rarely comments on the rate of its deaths on the battlefield. In February, its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, but estimates based on American intelligence suggest greater losses.

Rinat Khusniyarov's story is typical of many of the Russian volunteer soldiers who died. He was from Ufa in Union and did two jobs to make ends meet, at a tram depot, and at a plywood factory. He was 62 when he signed the contract with the Russian Army in November last year. He survived less than three months of fighting and was killed on February 27th. His neurology, on a local web memorial site, simply called it “a worker, good”.

According to the data we analyzed, most of the men who are registered come from small towns in parts of Russia where it is difficult to find stable and well-paid jobs. Most appear to have joined willingly, though some in the republic of Chechenia have told human rights activists and lawyers of austerity and threats.

Some of the volunteers have said they did not understand that the contracts they were signing had no date of conclusion, and since then they have been addressing pro-Kremlin journalists to ask for, without success, help to end their” service.

Salaries in the military could be 5 to 7 times higher than average salaries in less affluent parts of the country, plus soldiers receive social benefits, including free child care and tax facilities. The immediate payments for people registered by soldiers have steadily increased in many parts of Russia.

Most of the volunteers who die on the front line are between 42 and 50 years of age. They count 41,000 men on the list of more than 13,000 volunteers. The oldest Witness to be killed was 71 years old. In all, there are 250 Russian volunteers over the age of 60 who died in the war.

Soldiers have told the BBC that rising victims among volunteers are partly due to their deployment to the most challenging operational areas on the front line, especially in the Donnetsk region in the east, where they form the spinal cord for impoverished units.

“After the Russian soldiers we've been talking to, the Russian strategy of “The term has been used to describe the way Moscow sends waves of soldiers forward ruthlessly in an effort to exhausted Ukrainian forces and expose their whereabouts to Russian artillery. Images with widespread internet fears show Russian forces attacking Ukrainian positions with little or no equipment or support from artillery or military vehicles” quoted the BBC.

Sometimes hundreds of men were killed on one day. In recent weeks, the Russian Army has made desperate but unsuccessful efforts to capture the cities of eastern Ukraine of Casiv Yar and Pokrovsk with such tactics. An official study by the Russian defence ministry's leading medical directorate says 39% of soldiers' deaths are the result of limb injuries and that the mortality rate would be significantly improved if the first aid and subsequent medical care were better.

Since 2022, convicted prisoners have been encouraged to join in exchange for their release, but now a new policy implies that people facing prosecution can accept an agreement to go to war instead of facing the tribunal. In return, their cases are frozen and potentially nullified.

A small number of murdered volunteers have been from other countries. The BBC has identified the names of 272 such men, many from Central Asia: 47 from Uzbekistan, 51 from Tajikistan and 26 from Kyrgyzstan.

Last year, reports of Russia recruiting people in Cuba, Iraq, Yemen and Serbia appeared. Foreigners who already live in Russia without valid work permits or visas, who agree to “work for the state”, are promised not to be expelled and offered a simplified route to citizenship if they survive the war. Many have complained later that they did not understand the documents, and like Russian citizens, they have turned to the media for help.

The governments of India and Nepal have called on Moscow to stop sending their citizens to Ukraine and repatriating the bodies of the dead. So far the requirements have not been implemented. Many new recruits joining the Russian Army have criticised the training they have received. A man who signed a contract with the Russian Army in November last year told the BBC that he was promised two weeks of training at a shooting range before being deployed on the front line.

In reality, people were simply thrown out into the field and several devices were distributed. We were loaded into trains, then on trucks and sent to the front. About half of us were thrown into battle directly off the road. As a result, some people went from the recruiting office to the front line in just one week” he said.

Another soldier also told the BBC that the equipment is a problem. A random bulletproof vest and a cheap helmet. It's impossible to fight these. If you want to survive, you have to buy equipment” he said. ©BBCLAPSI.al