BBC News Russian and Mediazona have identified 14,709 Russian service members killed in the Ukraine war.
In the past two weeks, the journalists and a team of volunteers found the names of 1,679 dead military personnel which is five times higher than the average numbers for the same period of time. This fact can be a consequence of Russia’s most recent Donbas offensive, the BBC notes.
According to the media, this is the highest increase in Russian casualties since the war began. Most of those killed in the past three months were draftees, volunteers, and convicts.
The journalists note that they only collect open source data which means that the real number of casualties is even higher.
On 15 February, head of Russia’s Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov slammed governors who share reports about killed residents of their regions, calling on them to avoid speaking about the war death toll.
