An open-source project run jointly by the BBC and the Mediazona website has confirmed the deaths of more than 20,000 Russian service personnel in Ukraine, about one-third of them mercenaries recruited by the ostensibly private Wagner security firm. The project has documented 20,451 dead since Russia launched its massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, including 1,820 killed in the past two weeks. The Russian government has released little official information about its casualties in Ukraine, reporting 5,937 servicemen killed in September 2022. Western estimates put the number of Russian casualties -- both dead and wounded -- at about 200,000. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Siberia.Realities, click here.
Journalists Confirm More Than 20,000 Russian Dead In Ukraine War
Graves of Russian Wagner mercenary group fighters are seen in a cemetery near the village of Bakinskaya in Russia's Krasnodar region on January 22.