An open-source investigation has identified 287,831 Russian service members killed during Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The tally compiled by BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers relies on verifiable public records, including obituaries and statements from relatives.

Radio Svoboda reported the findings on Friday, November 13. The investigators cautioned that delayed recovery of bodies and late official registration of deaths make recent casualty levels particularly difficult to assess.

People with no military affiliation when the war began account for 52% of the documented deaths. Volunteers represent 35% of the list, mobilized troops 8% and former prisoners recruited from penal colonies 10%. The average age among those identified is 38.

The principal count excludes personnel from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk formations who died before their incorporation into Russia’s armed forces in 2023. Journalists separately estimated that 21,000 to 23,500 of those fighters were killed in 2022. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv routinely releases comprehensive casualty figures, while an alleged Rosstat dataset listing more than 390,000 Russian military deaths remains unverified.