The BBC, together with Mediazona** and a team of volunteers, have identified the names of 285,023 Russian soldiers who died during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Of all the units of the Russian army, motorized rifle brigades suffered the most losses, judging by our list.
From the second half of 2023, it was this branch of the military that took on the main burden during offensive operations.
Five brigades
By mid-October, more than 149,701 people on our list knew the unit in which they served.
The largest share of deaths occurred among soldiers of motorized rifle formations - essentially infantry, which, with the support of their tanks and artillery, storms and holds positions. The brigades that took the first five lines of the list lost a total of 15,312 people. This number includes only those military personnel whose deaths we were able to confirm from open sources on the Russian side (the data of missing persons or the name lists of the dead published by Ukrainian sources were not considered sufficient confirmation of death).
Since published obituaries, lists on military monuments, and public government registries do not contain data on all victims, the actual number of casualties in each of the mentioned units is most likely higher.
The plight of the 15th Motorized Rifle Brigade, known as the “Black Hussars,” which is at the top of our list, was previously reported in detail by journalists from Vverstka** and Mediazona**. Their investigations showed that the deaths of the soldiers of this brigade were associated not only with events on the battlefield, but also with the possible arbitrariness of the commanders. Military personnel and their relatives reported numerous cases of torture and extortion of money from Black Hussars soldiers. According to relatives, if some soldiers refused, they killed their own.
In second place in terms of the confirmed number of losses is the 30th motorized rifle brigade, stationed in the Samara region. Before the invasion of Ukraine began, it was a new experimental unit with an emphasis on mobility. Instead of heavy armored vehicles, some of the military personnel had to travel in UAZ Patriot vehicles.
At the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, motorized rifle units were poorly prepared for protracted battles and assault operations in the face of fierce resistance. The command's expectation of rapid advancement did not materialize, and problems with communications, supplies and coordination aggravated the situation of the infantry stuck in the battles, analysts at the Royal Defense Studies Institute (RUSI) noted.
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The 30th Brigade and the rest of the motorized rifle units on our list begin to suffer the greatest losses at the end of 2023. Before this, the main assault load was carried out by the Wagner PMC mercenary units.
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During the months-long battle for Bakhmut, the Wagnerites tried out new tactics of using small groups on foot, staffed mainly by former prisoners. They were sent directly to the enemy’s fortified positions, provoking the Ukrainians to open fire and give up their firing points, which were then covered with artillery. This tactic led to heavy casualties, but proved to be very effective in moving forward and depleting the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Gradually, this model of assault operations began to be used by infantry units of the Russian army. Large losses were made up for by recruiting more and more contract volunteers. According to our data, volunteers make up at least 41% of all identified dead of the 30th Brigade.
One of them is 28-year-old Timofey Fedotov from the village of Froly, Perm Territory. Before the start of a full-scale war, he worked as a slinger at the Permmetal plant, where he could earn about 25 thousand rubles. According to the bailiff service, Timofey gradually began to accumulate debts on fines and loans, which by 2023 reached 200 thousand rubles.
image copyrightCollage Froly ritual services/Froly cultural house
As a result, at the end of 2023, he signed a contract with the Russian army. At that moment, the 30th motorized rifle brigade, where Timofey ended up, was fighting in one of the most intense sections of the front - the Avdeevsky direction.
The battles for Avdiivka were bloody and protracted. Even supporters of the Russian invasion criticized the methods of using infantry in these battles.
“Instead of being left without shells, going on the defensive, training people, installing digital communications on equipment, mobilizing industry, for months they persistently finish off the remnants of the infantry against the Ukrainian fortifications,” wrote Russian military and z-blogger Andrei Morozov, known under the call sign Murz.
He estimated the losses of the Russian side in the battle for Avdeevka at 16 thousand people. This post was later deleted, Morozov was harshly criticized in the Soloviev Live program, and he committed suicide.
Timofey Fedotov managed to survive the battles for Avdeevka. In February 2024, judging by the publications of the Ukrainian side, he was captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The BBC was unable to establish details of his captivity, but it is known that Fedotov was then exchanged and returned to Russia.
But the return from captivity did not mark the end of the war for Timothy. After some time, he again found himself on the front line and died in August 2026. In Russia, cases of soldiers returning to the front line after being held captive have been repeatedly recorded by both journalists and human rights activists. Our list of names includes 152 people who, after being captured and exchanged, returned to the front where they died. The real number of such cases is clearly higher.
Timofey's story shows how the Russian army makes up for the shortage of people not only by recruiting new contract soldiers, but also by returning to duty those who have already dropped out of combat.
The top ten Russian formations with the highest number of confirmed deaths also included four elite units: two marine brigades and two airborne divisions. We talked about them in detail in the previous loss report.
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How the Russian infantry has changed
Both Western experts and military commentators in Russia wrote about the low level of training of Russian motorized rifle formations at the beginning of the war.
“What is missing most of all is simply infantry, which is spent in frontal attacks in the Donbass, I emphasize, trained assault infantry, and not mobilized poorly trained in shooting and completely untrained in tactics. This is a very big problem, it is multifaceted, and it can only be partially solved by simply pouring people into the troops,” said former Defense Minister of the self-proclaimed DPR Igor Strelkov, who later ended up in a Russian prison, in an interview.
Using the example of the operation to cross the Seversky Donets River in the Lugansk region in May 2022, the authors of the American analytical center Center for Naval Analyzes (CNA) show a number of errors and gaps in the training of Russian motorized riflemen.
Soldiers of the 74th Motorized Rifle Brigade (also on our list of units that suffered the greatest confirmed losses during this war) repeatedly tried to build bridges across the river without reconnaissance, fire support, or ensuring the security of the area. As a result, the Ukrainian military repeatedly discovered the enemy and covered them with artillery. After the destruction of the crossings, motorized riflemen made new attempts to build bridges in the same place.
But gradually the Russian infantry adapted to the conditions of a real war. Russian officers learned to advance in small groups, look for gaps between Ukrainian strongholds, and consolidate positions despite drone activity. This made it possible to continue attacks in conditions where crowds of people and equipment quickly became targets of drones.
All five motorized rifle brigades that top our list of confirmed losses took part in the battle for Avdiivka. The city was eventually captured and came under Russian control in February 2024. After this, infantry continued to be actively used for advancement at the front.
April 2024 stands out in the 74th Brigade's casualty list with 121 confirmed fatalities. This month coincides with the fighting in the area of the village of Berdychi and the development of the Russian offensive after Avdeevka.
For the 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade, the most difficult battles were in July and August 2024. This period coincides with its participation in the offensive against the town of New York in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Now the tactics of using motorized rifles have changed somewhat again. In an April 2026 analysis, the International Institute for Strategic Studies - IISS - noted that the proliferation of small drones at the front has led to even greater dispersal of infantry.
Russian offensive operations have predominantly shifted to infiltrating the gray zone (territory not firmly controlled by either side) by teams of one or two men. Such groups are faced with several sequential tasks: to reach Ukrainian positions, find shelter, provide supplies and hold out until reinforcements arrive. On days when weather interferes with drone activity, the Russians revert to mechanized attacks.
Recruiting new contract soldiers allows motorized rifle formations to continue combat operations after heavy losses.
What are the real loss figures?
The real losses of the Russian side are greater than the number of dead, whose names can be confirmed from open sources.
Military experts estimate that the results of our analysis of Russian cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries may cover from 45% to 55% of the real death toll.
Not all deaths are reported publicly. In addition, the bodies of a significant number of military personnel killed in recent months still remain on the battlefield. Attempts to evacuate them involve serious danger to the living, primarily due to the threat of drone strikes.
Based on expert estimates, the real death toll on the Russian side could range from 518,224 to 633,384 people.
The overall figure becomes noticeably higher if we take into account those who fought against Ukraine as part of units of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, as well as the losses of North Korean units who fought in the Kursk region of Russia.
An analysis of obituaries and publications in 2022 about missing fighters from the LPR and DPR suggests that by the end of 2022, 21,000 - 23,500 people had died.
By examining satellite imagery and official photographs of North Korea's new war memorial for the fallen, BBC Korea has identified 2,304 Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian forces and died in 2024-25.
Thus, according to the collected data, the total losses of pro-Russian forces could range from 541,528 to 659,188 troops.
Ukraine last reported its losses in July 2026. Then President Vladimir Zelensky said that “about 50 thousand” Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Western experts believe that the number of losses cited by Zelensky is most likely underestimated.
A list of losses by name on the Ukrainian side based on open sources is maintained by the anonymous website Ukraine losses - it currently contains 115,952 names of dead military personnel. Ukraine losses also indicates that, taking into account publications about missing persons, the total number of military deaths on the Ukrainian side could reach 234,573 people.
We continue to collect information about fallen servicemen. If you would like to share data on this topic please email us at bbcrussian@bbc.co.uk
What do we think?
In Russia, the names of the dead and photographs from funerals are published every day. Most often, the names are given by the heads of Russian regions or representatives of district administrations, local media and educational institutions where the deceased previously studied, as well as relatives.
The BBC, Mediazona** and a team of volunteers are reviewing this data and adding it to the list we have been maintaining since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
We consider a publication in a Russian official source or media, publications by relatives or posts in other sources if they are accompanied by photographs of the burial as confirmation of death.
We determined the types of troops by reports of where the deceased served, or by insignia on the uniform. Mobilized, volunteers and prisoners are not separate branches of the military, however, we highlight these losses in a separate category in order to compare them with the losses of professional (contract) units of the regular army.
The main calculation does not take into account the losses of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics until 2023. Since January 2023, since units of the “People’s Militia of the DPR” became part of the Russian army, we count those killed from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as foreigners who fought as part of Russian units.
* The Russian authorities included Olga Ivshina in the register of “foreign agents”. The BBC strongly objects to this decision and is challenging it in court.
** The publications “Mediazona” and “Vorstka” have also been declared “foreign agents” by the Russian authorities.
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