In the month since Russia announced ‘partial mobilization,’ 41 conscripts have died

Journalists from Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian service, along with a team of volunteers, established based on open-source research that at least 7,822 Russian soldiers have been killed in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

As of October 21, at least 41 of the deaths were among men who have been mobilized in the past month (Russia’s “partial mobilization” was announced on September 21). Not all of the losses have been in combat – people have died in military educational centers, at training grounds, and on units before they were sent to the front. 

Losses among volunteer detachments grew most significantly since the start of the war – the numbers are almost comparable to losses among the air force and motorized infantry units. Volunteers have lost 800 people; the air force and motorized infantry have lost 1,200, says Mediazona.

Soldiers from national republics are killed most frequently – Dagestan and Buryatia occupy the top spots by that metric.

The war is now in its eighth month. During the six months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more Russian soldiers were killed than during the entire Second Chechen War, writes Mediazona.

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The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced Russian losses in the war only three times – the last time was on September 21, the day mobilization was announced, when defense minister Sergey Shoigu reported that 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed.

On October 12, the publication Vazhniye Istorii reported, citing an active FSB officer and a former Russian intelligence officer, that Russia’s irrecoverable losses in the war exceed 90,000 people.