Volunteers of the “Horyushko” project, analyzing obituaries in the media and posts by relatives of the victims on social media, confirmed the deaths of 100,000 Russian military personnel as of February 24, 2025.
The calculation takes into account only active members of the Russian security forces who died in the occupied territories of Ukraine or in Russia, as well as fighters of the Wagner PMC with Russian citizenship.
This does not include military personnel from the occupied territories of Donbas, foreign mercenaries, and people who died after being evacuated to the rear.
According to the volunteers’ estimates, the one hundred thousandth casualty was Oleksiy Burkov from the village of Sosnovske, Kirov region of the Russian Federation, who died in December 2024.
According to journalists from Mediazone, the BBC Russian Service, and a group of volunteers, the actual number of Russian military deaths may be much higher, as not all cases are reported in open sources.
In July 2024, journalists developed a methodology for estimating losses based on a comparison of the number of obituaries and data from the Register of Hereditary Cases.
As of February 21, 2025, they found 95,026 obituaries of dead Russians. However, they estimate that the actual number of losses among the Russian military may range from 146,000 to 221,000. Separately, it is estimated that another 21,000 to 23,500 people died in the ranks of the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”.