Leaked internal records from Rosstat, Russia’s state statistics agency, indicate that at least 450,000 Russians—most of them soldiers—died in the war in Ukraine up to August this year, according to an analysis by the Financial Times and data shared by two hacking groups. The files were obtained by the Belarusian Cyber Partisans and Ukraine-based Silent Crow, which announced on November 1 that they had broken into Rosstat’s network. Rosstat confirmed cyberattacks between October 29 and November 1 but said it found no evidence that databases were compromised or protected data leaked. The figures far exceed anything officially acknowledged by Moscow, which does not publish its military death toll.
Key Takeaways: The leaked files point to at least 450,000 Russian war deaths up to August, including about 410,000 recorded directly as war-related, 42,000 missing men confirmed dead in court decisions and 12,000 likely military deaths identified near the front. More than 4,000 foreign citizens, including people from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal, Colombia and Nigeria, are believed to have died fighting for Russia. The data has not been independently verified, although analysts and media outlets say they believe the Rosstat database is authentic.
The leak emerged after the two hacking groups published their own analysis and shared files with several news organisations. Rosstat acknowledged the cyberattacks but denied any breach of protected data, leaving a dispute over how the records became public. Janis Kluge, an expert on Russia at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, claimed on X that “there is no longer any doubt that the leaked Rosstat database is authentic,” adding that famous people who died in recent years can be found in it. He later asked whether the data might have been manipulated to raise the war death toll, but described such a conspiracy as highly unlikely and unbelievably difficult to carry out.
The records offer a detailed, if incomplete, picture of the human cost. About 120,000 of those with a recorded location died in the area containing Avdiivka and Pokrovsk, and a further 48,000 in Bakhmut, the FT reported. Avdiivka, a small industrial city in the Donetsk region, became part of the so-called contact line after 2014–2015 and was the scene of bitter fighting before Russia took it in 2024. Bakhmut, a vital intersection in Donetsk Oblast, saw the war’s longest and bloodiest infantry battle before falling to Russian and Wagner Group forces in May 2023. Pokrovsk, a coal-mining city, was captured in early 2026 after more than a year of gruelling battles, according to the report.
The demographics also point to the war’s uneven burden. The average age of the dead rose from 34 in the first year of the war to 40 in 2025, and men aged 35 to 44 made up the largest group, with 158,000 dead. Ethnic Russians constitute more than two-thirds of Russia’s 143 million population, while the rest are minorities. Zabaykalsky Krai, home to a large Buryat community, recorded about 12,300 deaths. The FT concluded that once late paperwork is counted, the toll up to August will settle at about 550,000. With Moscow still refusing to publish official casualty figures and the leaked data not independently verified, the full scale of the losses remains disputed and likely to grow as registration delays are processed.
Source: www.aljazeera.com