An investigation by the independent Russian outlet Mediazona, in collaboration with the Russian Service of the BBC and a team of volunteers, has confirmed the nominal death of 258,989 Russian soldiers in Ukraine, according to data updated as of September 21, 2026, and gathered by the Kyiv Independent.
The most recent increase was particularly striking: between September 11 and 21, 10,145 names were added in less than two weeks, approximately double the usual pace. According to Mediazona, the surge was largely due to a leaked list of bodies exchanged between Russia and Ukraine, whose names were only included in the count after independent verification through official records.
Researchers themselves warn that the actual death toll is likely much higher, as their methodology relies exclusively on open and verifiable sources: obituaries, family posts on social media, reports from regional Russian media, and statements from local authorities.
To provide a more comprehensive estimate, Mediazona and the Russian outlet in exile Meduza developed a statistical method based on excess male mortality using data from the Russian Inheritance Registry. This estimate, updated in May 2026 with data up to late December 2025, places the actual total of deaths at approximately 352,000, significantly higher than the nearly 259,000 that have been nominally confirmed.
Among the detailed data from the count, Mediazona confirmed the death of 7,692 officers from the Russian army and other security agencies. The proportion of officers among total casualties has steadily decreased: at the beginning of the war, they accounted for up to 10% of the deceased; by November 2024, that figure had dropped to between 2% and 3%, reflecting the massive recruitment of voluntary infantry that experiences mortality rates significantly higher than those of their commanders.
The count also includes the deaths of 15 Russian generals: five lieutenant generals, seven division generals, and two retirees. The most recent was Lieutenant General Alexander Otroschenko, commander of the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet, who died on March 31, 2026, in the accident of an An-26 aircraft in Crimea.
Regarding the mobilized soldiers, the count registers around 20,500 dead, a figure that Mediazona acknowledges as a severe underestimation: recent obituaries rarely mention recruitment details, making it difficult to identify those called to service. The update coincided with the fourth anniversary of the "partial mobilization" decreed by Vladimir Putin on September 21, 2022.
The immediate war context exacerbates the situation. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski declared on Sunday that his forces had killed or wounded 10,660 Russian soldiers in the previous week, according to a report from Chief Commander Mykhailo Drapatyi, as part of Ukrainian offensive operations in the Lyman sector of the Donetsk region.
This conflict also has a direct connection to Cuba: at least 93 Cuban citizens have died fighting for Russia, while Havana remains silent and Moscow forgets them.
Amnesty International has reported that Russia is recruiting Cubans through deception and coercion, sending them to the front with only weeks of training.
The Ukrainian General Staff estimated on Sunday that Russia has accumulated 1,528,970 personnel losses since the beginning of the large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, a number that does not differentiate between the dead, wounded, missing, or captured.
As noted by the Kyiv Independent, "casualty estimates vary widely, and neither Russia nor Ukraine publishes complete and independently verifiable military figures."
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