Russian war deaths top 400,000 in leaked Rosstat data, hackers say

The hacker group Silent Crow has gained access to Rosstat data and published a database showing that more than 400,000 Russians have died in the war against Ukraine. Rosstat itself no longer publishes such statistics. Last year was the deadliest: 182,264 deaths, compared with 109,683 the year before. So far this year, 39,296 names have been added to the database, but these figures are not considered final.

The death toll rises every month. According to the database, over the past six months an average of 18,280 new names were added each month. The real figures may be even higher, since information reaches Rosstat with a delay of several months.

The data is consistent with other estimates. Mediazona and Meduza have confirmed the deaths of 285,000 Russian servicemen and put the total at 350,000. Ukraine’s General Staff speaks of 1.6 million Russians killed and wounded.

Where Russian soldiers are dying

By studying the cause-of-death field, the hackers also worked out the geography of the losses. More than half of the dead, 54.9 percent, fell in the Donetsk region, control of which Moscow treats as a priority of the war. The Luhansk region accounts for 8.3 percent, the Zaporizhzhia region for 7.55 percent, Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops entered, for 4.4 percent, and the Kherson region for 2 percent.

Who is dying, and from what

The bulk of the dead, 356,056 people, fall under category Y36, death during military operations. Civilians may be among them, but age and sex suggest otherwise: the overwhelming majority are men of conscription age, between 20 and 59. The largest group of dead is aged 35–39 (69,306), followed by those aged 40–44 (66,435). The 30–34 and 45–49 groups each number around 55,000.

Another 38,229 of the dead carry code Y89.1 (death or injury as a result of military action under the international classification of diseases, ICD-10), or have no code but are recorded as victims of combat. For 18,291 people the record says they died in military operations, with no code. For 575, the cause is listed as a terrorist act. A further 13,671 people were registered in Russia and died in the occupied territories or in Ukraine, with no cause of death given. Besides combat losses, 14,260 servicemen died from accidents, illness or suicide, and for 9,118 no cause is recorded at all.

According to Rosstat’s statistics, war-related death has become the fourth most common cause of death in Russia since the invasion began. It is behind only heart disease (2.2 million deaths), deaths with code U07 (including Covid) and cerebrovascular diseases other than stroke; each of the last two categories has more than 665,000 victims over four years.

Where the dead come from

For 229,293 of the dead (52 percent), neither an address nor a region is given. Among the rest, the largest share, 27.4 percent, come from the Volga region. Central Russia accounts for 16.9 percent, the south for 15.3, Siberia for 14.7 and the Far East for 12 percent. Moscow and the Moscow region account for just 0.9 percent, St Petersburg for 0.2.

The picture is clearer when calculated per 100,000 residents. Zabaykalsky Krai tops this grim ranking with 1,260 dead per 100,000 people. In the Jewish Autonomous Region the figure is 1,010, in Tuva 842, in Chukotka 777 and in Buryatia 675. In the Moscow region it is 150, and in Moscow itself just 68.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz