Over 55,000 Russian soldiers dead in Ukraine, reveals BBC analysis

BBC can confirm that more than 55,000 Russian army soldiers have died in Ukraine, as reported on Wednesday, based on analyses. In the second year of the conflict, at least 30,000 aggressor soldiers died. The actual number of fatalities is likely significantly higher.

Since February 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine, the station, alongside volunteers and the independent media group Mediazona, has been conducting analyses. The team scours the internet, collecting data from various sources such as media reports, blogs, social media, and also monitors cemeteries.

Russia has not released official lists of the deceased and has refused to comment on the information collected by the BBC. The station's website mentioned that the data does not account for deaths among members of pro-Russian paramilitary groups in the occupied east of Ukraine.

The team monitors 70 cemeteries, noting an increase in military graves that occupy "significantly more space." In some instances, such as at the Bogorodskoje cemetery in Ryazan, management had to create entirely new sections to accommodate the influx of burials, primarily for fallen soldiers and officers.

The BBC estimates that at least two in five of the deceased had no prior military connection before the invasion.

Samuel Cranny-Evens from the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says that at the start of the 2022 invasion, Russia was able to use its professional troops to conduct complicated military operations. However, the analyst points out that now, as experienced soldiers have either died or been injured, their places are being taken by less well-trained volunteers, civilians, and prisoners who lack the skills of professional soldiers.

"This means they have to do things that are a lot simpler tactically - which generally seems to be a forward assault onto Ukrainian positions with artillery support," he notes.

In June 2022, the recruitment of prisoners for combat began, initially by the mercenary group Wagner, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, and later by the regular army. The BBC team has identified that so far, at least 9,900 prisoners have died.

Journalists found that killed convicts in the Wagner group had an average of three months in the war, while those recruited later by the regular army only had around two. In the Wagner group, prisoners underwent at least two weeks of training. However, according to the BBC's conversations with families of prisoners recruited by the army, these individuals were sent to the front almost directly from their cells after minimal training. Wagner prisoners, upon surviving, could regain their freedom after a six-month contract, whereas those recruited by the army can only do so when the war ends.

The army forms so-called storm units from these prisoners, experiencing exceptionally high losses. One online forum member for recruited prisoners mentioned that his unit initially had one hundred soldiers five months ago; now, only 38 remain.

For comparison, during the 10-year war in Afghanistan, the fatalities on the USSR side amounted to about 15,000.

Source: BBC/Mediazona