At least 70,000 soldiers have fallen on the Russian side in the war against Ukraine.
In Moscow, no death toll is reported, but the British BBC and the independent Russian Mediazona scrutinize open sources to identify each individual soldier killed in the war. By Thursday, they had found more than 70,000, according to BBC.
For the first time since they started keeping this statistic, soldiers who have enlisted voluntarily make up the largest proportion.
However, the real death toll is much higher. By June this year, it was likely at least 120,000 and possibly up to 140,000, according to a calculation model developed by independent Russian media.
Russia's total losses in the invasion war – i.e., soldiers who have been killed or injured to the extent that they must be withdrawn from combat – are likely to amount to several hundred thousand.
