Mediazona and BBC News Russian confirm that more than 15,000 Russian servicemen died in the full-scale war’s first year

At least 15,136 Russian military servicemen died in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to a new report from Mediazona. Journalists from Mediazona and BBC News Russia worked with a team of volunteers to calculate the number from open sources.

The figure includes more than 1,200 mobilized soldiers, more than 1,300 former prisoners, more than 1,800 officers, and 199 lieutenant colonels, colonels, and generals.

Mediazona noted that Russia lost more military personnel in the first year of its full-scale war against Ukraine than the Soviet Union lost throughout the entire Soviet–Afghan War, in which 15,051 Soviet soldiers died.

The report’s authors noted that the actual number of Russian military dead is much higher, as Mediazona’s list only includes soldiers whose deaths have been publicly confirmed.