Over four years of full-scale invasion, at least 200,186 Russian soldiers have died in the war against Ukraine, according to an investigation by the BBC’s Russian Service, Mediazona, and a team of volunteers.
In 2025, the official death toll for Russian servicemen stood at 49,935. Although this figure is lower than the 2024 toll, which, according to publicly available data, was at least 83,706 soldiers and officers, journalists note that the actual losses may be much higher. Some reports estimate that the true number of casualties could exceed 90,000, as tens of thousands of death reports have yet to be included in the official statistics, Meduza reports.
"To date, there has been a 40% increase in the number of published obituaries in 2025 compared to the previous year. With a high degree of certainty, it can be said that despite a series of diplomatic talks and negotiations for a possible peace, 2025 is set to be the deadliest year for the Russian military," the article states.
Mediazona further reports that 122,700 of the fallen soldiers came from urban areas, while 57,200 were from rural regions. Large cities and million-strong metropolises were "virtually untouched by the war": two-thirds of the casualties were residents of towns with populations under 100,000 people.
The regions with the highest absolute number of casualties are Bashkortostan (7,700), Tatarstan (6,800), and Sverdlovsk Oblast (6,300). Among larger regions, Tuva leads in casualties per capita, with 476 deaths per 100,000 residents, followed by Buryatia (400), Zabaykalsky Krai (362), and the Altai Republic (316).
A detailed analysis by the BBC’s Russian Service reveals that individuals from small towns and villages are more likely to sign contracts with the military. These areas suffer from a lack of stable, well-paying jobs, and local authorities' recruitment efforts are often more aggressive than in larger cities. The distribution of casualties across regions suggests a clear pattern: higher poverty levels correlate with higher losses.
A demographer, who wished to remain anonymous, analyzed the data from BBC and Mediazona and pointed out that the regions with the highest death tolls largely overlap with those that have low life expectancies.
"In other words, people from regions where the likelihood of dying a violent death is already high are more likely to go to war. The expert suggests that it may no longer be just poverty driving people to sign contracts, but a lack of prospects, the feeling that there is nothing more to lose," the publication concludes.
