Hacked Rosstat data points to 74,000 Russian deaths near Pokrovsk

The pro-opposition Belarusian group Cyber Partisans and Ukrainian hackers Silent Crow said they breached Rosstat and obtained 23 terabytes of information, including records of deaths in Russia in recent years. The groups said the material can be used to estimate Russian military deaths since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

The figures indicate that more Ukrainians were killed near Robotyne than Russian soldiers near Pokrovsk. They also suggest Russian military deaths exceed those in all other Soviet and Russian wars since the Second World War combined, and are higher than the number of US soldiers killed in that war. The source report says the toll amounts to at least one percent of Russia’s male population aged 18 to 60.

German economist Janis Kluge, who researches Russia’s wartime economy and military recruitment, called the release “the biggest information leak” on Russian losses in comments to The Guardian. The data also show that the brother of Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak was killed while fighting for Russia.