Russia may have lost up to 450,000 in Ukraine war, leaked death records claim

Between 394,000 and 450,000 people fighting on Russia's side or otherwise linked to the war in Ukraine may have died since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to death records allegedly obtained from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) by two hacker groups.Belarusian Cyberpartisans and Silent Crow, which claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Rosstat, published the estimates on November 7, saying they had accessed the agency's internal Demography database containing information from death certificates registered between February 2022 and August 2026.Belarusian Cyberpartisans estimated at least 393,881 deaths based on records that explicitly identified military operations as the cause. Silent Crow put the figure at up to 450,100, using a broader methodology that also included non-combat deaths of military personnel and certain deaths recorded without a specified cause.The Kyiv Independent said it could not immediately verify the authenticity of the leaked records or the casualty estimates.According to estimates based on data from the Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState, Russia has gained control of approximately 73,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Comparing this with Silent Crow's estimate of 450,100 deaths would amount to roughly six deaths for every square kilometre of territory seized, although the casualty figures have not been independently verified.The hackers said they had gained access to Rosstat's network around six months before launching the attack, systematically collecting internal documents and other data before targeting the agency's IT infrastructure overnight between October 31 and November 1.Rosstat acknowledged that its systems had been targeted in cyberattacks between October 29 and November 1 but denied that its databases had been compromised or information leaked. The agency later reported disruptions to some of its services and extended deadlines for submitting certain statistical data.Russia does not disclose its military casualties in Ukraine, making independent assessments of the death toll difficult.As of November 6, independent Russian outlet Mediazona, working with BBC Russian and volunteers, had identified 285,881 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine through open-source research. The journalists have repeatedly stressed that their verified count is incomplete and that the actual death toll is considerably higher.The casualty estimates come ahead of another round of negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, scheduled to take place on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as efforts continue to find a way to end the war.The talks would be the fourth round of negotiations brokered by the Trump administration, with the most recent meeting held in Geneva in February.Western governments backing the peace initiative are seeking a new formula to break the deadlock, although key issues concerning territory and security remain unresolved.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.