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21 July 2024

Russia Classifies Mortality Data after Ukraine War Losses Revealed

Isabel van Brugen

Russia has classified parts of its mortality data, days after an investigation revealed the scale of the nation's war dead—according to a Russian demographer.

Alexey Raksha, a demographer who previously worked at the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) statistics agency, found on Tuesday that Rosstat deleted two columns of data containing details on the number of deaths and mortality from external causes.

On June 27, the original data was used by independent outlet Important Stories, which estimated that at least 71,000 Russian troops had died since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has resulted in high military fatalities for both Moscow and Kyiv. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Independent Russian news outlets Mediazona and Meduza also published a joint investigation on troop deaths in the war on July 5, which used data from the country's National Probate Registry. The outlets found that by the end of June, approximately 120,000 Russian troops had died since the conflict began, "but the real number could be as high as 140,000."

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