At least 11,000 foreign-born fighters have died fighting for Russia in Ukraine, leaked government data shows, Bloomberg reports

Data obtained by hackers from Rosstat show that more than 11,000 foreigners fighting on Russia’s side have died since the start of the full-scale war.

Bloomberg journalists examined the data and found records of 11,335 deaths among people born outside Russia — citizens of other countries, naturalized Russians, or Russian citizens by birth. Bloomberg said these people came from nearly 100 countries.

The data cover the period from late February 2022 to late August 2026.

What Bloomberg found

• Russia has actively recruited foreign fighters in recent years. The data recorded 630 foreign combat deaths in 2022, a figure that had risen to more than 5,500 by 2025
• The data show Russian recruiters have worked steadily across different countries over time: death records rose for Nepali citizens in 2023–2034, for Chinese and Sri Lankan citizens in 2024–2025, and for Colombian, Kenyan, and Nigerian citizens from late 2025
• Nearly a quarter of the foreign dead — about 3,700 people — are Ukrainian citizens and/or were born in Ukraine. The journalists suggest many of them are residents of Russian-occupied territories
• About 80% of the remaining foreign dead were born in countries of the former USSR
• About 6,000 of the foreign-born dead held Russian citizenship at the time of their deaths
• There are no North Korean citizens on this list, although it has been officially confirmed that North Korean soldiers have fought and suffered losses in the war.

Hacker groups “Cyber Partisans BY” and Silent Crow, who hacked Rosstat, said that more than 390,000 Russians have died in Russia’s war with Ukraine as of late August.

Meduza and Mediazona gained access to the hackers’ data and are already working to verify it. We are trying to rule out the possibility of artificial poisoning of the data and to determine how complete it is. Medical certificates, which serve as the basis for death certificates, do not always list the true cause of death. More importantly, even Rosstat’s internal data, now accessible to journalists, do not include up-to-date information about people who are missing. These people are declared dead after a long delay. Only a full-fledged study can determine their most likely number.