The identities have been established of 46,678 Russian servicemen killed to date in the war in Ukraine, the BBC News Russian reported Friday.
In a joint project with independent news outlet Mediazona and a team of volunteers, researchers were also able to confirm the deaths of 1,555 servicemen in the past two weeks alone, representing one of the highest mortality rates at any time in the war.
The number of Russian losses between October and January is second only to the number of deaths from the storming of Vuhledar and Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, in the winter and spring of last year.
Relatives and friends of servicemen often only hear of their deaths much later, so the surge in casualties over the past two weeks is partly due to the assault on Avdiivka, also in the Donetsk region. The report also said it received confirmation of more recent deaths that came in the wake of Russian attempts to advance in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In the past two weeks, 382 volunteers, 219 conscripts and 191 soldiers recruited from prisons have been killed, the report continued. Two thirds of the dead had no military experience before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.