As a result of Ukraine’s New Year attack on temporary barracks in the Russian-occupied Makeyevka, more Russian soldiers died than officially confirmed, the Russian service of the BBC reports. informed Wednesday.
Russian BBC journalists used data from open sources to verify the identities of 92 Russian soldiers who died as a result of the strike, the publication reports.
Another 16 soldiers, who were in improvised barracks in the eastern Ukrainian city during the attack, remain missing.
Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged the death of 89 soldiers, the highest number of reported casualties since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, while accusing the soldiers of inadvertently giving away their location to Ukrainian forces.
Relatives quoted by BBC Russian said most of the slain soldiers were drafted as part of President Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilization last fall.
They spent the next two months training in the Samara region of central Russia and were sent to Makeyevka on December 26, less than a week before the attack on Ukraine.
The burial of those mobilized in Makeyevka began on January 7 and continued in the following days.
In total, BBC Russian reported that more than 12,200 troops have been killed in the 11 months since they were ordered to invade Ukraine.
The Russian military last updated its death toll during the war in Ukraine in September 2022, when it said fewer than 6,000 soldiers had been killed.
BBC Russian, in collaboration with the independent news site Mediazona, uses official statements, social media and media reports – in addition to volunteers monitoring cemeteries in dozens of Russian cities and villages – to compile a tally of soldiers killed in Ukraine.
