More than 95,000 people fighting for the Russian army have now died as the war in Ukraine entered the fourth year, according to the BBC data.

This number does not include those who were killed in the service of self -advertised republics, which we estimate range from 21,000 and 23,500 fighters.

Russian BBC, Independent Media Group, media and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022.

The list includes the names of the deceased in which we achieved using information from official reports, newspapers, social media, new memorials and graves. It is believed that the real number of death is much higher.

Daniel Donikov, 21 -year -old at Donetsk National University, was reading international relations and swimming.

On the first day of Russia’s extensive invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, the authorities in the declared Republic of Donetsk have mobilized Daniel by force and sent him to the Kharkiv region.

Just one month later, on March 25, Daniel lost work. Among 18 soldiers in his unit, none of them. 13 was killed, five prisoners were taken. Four months later, after the exchange of prisoners, those who survived confirmed that Daniel was one of the 13 dead.

The story of Daniel reflects the story that contains thousands of other -speaking populations of self -speaking Donetsk and Luhanssk, which was established by the separatists supported in Moscow in 2014 in parts of eastern Ukraine, speaking in 2014.

With the Russian invasion on a large scale in 2022, civilian men were formulated collectively, and they are often insufficient trained before appointing almost due tasks. This has led to an amazing number of dead and missing soldiers, whose fate is still unknown for months or years.

According to our analysis of the published self and the missing reports from the regions, most of the deaths occurred in the Donbas militia during the first year of the invasion, which is similar losses to the total number of confident Russian military losses during the same period – 25,769 deaths.

However, although many people in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine have relatives or friends in Russia, they are less integrated in the country’s daily life, making their losses less “clear” for ordinary Russians.

Another large part of the Russian losses are recruited in prisons.

Eldos Sadikov was 59 years old when he was arrested to steal a bag at a railway station in Moscow. This was the fourth time that he ended in prison, after spent a total of 16 years behind bars for his separate criminal condemnation.

“Tell me,“ If you do not want to return to prison, then sign a contract. ”They assured me that at my life, he will not be sent to the forefront, only he was appointed to an auxiliary role. He remembers, speaking as a prisoner of war after the Ukrainian forces seized him in the summer of 2024 .

After the prisoner’s exchange, he was returned to Russia, where he was returned to the front lines again. This month, Eldos Sadikov was killed in the fighting.

Currently, the Russian BBC database of war losses includes 16,171 convicted criminals recruited from penal colonies to fight. These are just cases where we can check criminal records through open sources. The actual number of deceased convicts is likely to be much higher.

By including an analysis of documents leaked by the military Wagner Group military company, we can appreciate that prisoners may constitute up to a third of Russian military deaths over three years of invasion. Many of these individuals lived in reformist facilities, effectively cut from the broader society, for successive years.

“The losses feel more than that through the segments of Russian society with less resources, whether educational, financial or political,” says Gulnaz Sharavotenova, director of the Russian Institute at Kings College in London.

“It seems that the Kremlin has designed it in this way, ensuring that the most privileged sections of society remain largely separate from the war. Hence the employment of foreign prisoners and mercenaries.”

“In small cities, people are more aware of the size of the losses. The war has struck social groups that lack the means not only to protest but even to express their opinions openly. Discussions are limited to private conversations.”

Only 30 % of the Russians were exposed directly to the war, either by fighting or family relations of the fighters, according to a general opinion poll of the Chronicles project in September 2024.80 %.

It is difficult to measure the real support for the war in Russia, because many respondents are afraid to speak honestly. But a study commissioned by the PROPA project, with the support of the University of Helsinki, found that 43 % of the Russians surveyed publicly supported the invasion.

“Are public attitudes towards the war different if more people personally know the fall?” The Russian sociologist is pioneering Victor Fakhisin. “Undoubtedly.”

The actual losses of Russia are definitely higher than what open source data can reveal. Military analysts we consulted estimate that the BBC research, which is based on graves and the memorial for war and guilt, may capture 45 % to only 65 % of total injuries.

In addition, the bodies of many dead will remain in recent months in the battlefield, because their recovery requires living soldiers to the dangers of exposure to drones.

Looking at the above estimate, the true number of Russian military deaths can range from 146194 to 211,169. If one adds estimated losses from the DPR and LPR forces, the total number of Russian alignment mortality may range from 167194 to 234669.

Russia officially informed its military losses in September 2022, and cited less than 6000 deaths.

Another Ukraine updated its victims in December 2024, when President Folodimir Zelinski confessed to 43,000 Ukrainian deaths between soldiers and employees. Western analysts believe this number suffers from a deficiency.

The website of Ukraine, which collects injuries data from open sources, lists more than 70,400 titles of Ukrainian soldiers. We found checking a random sample of 400 of them that the database is reliable.

The list of Ukrainian victims is likely to be more complete than the Russian equivalent, as the Ukrainian presidential decrees remain on the military prizes after his death at all. In Russia, this data is classified.

As the war approaches its fourth year, global attention turned into the new US administration negotiations for peace negotiations. We continue to monitor the activity in Russian military cemeteries and the memorial of the war, and we analyze the liabilities, which have increased sharply since September last year.