During the Russian annexation of Crimea[1] from 23 February through 19 March 2014, six people were killed. The dead included three protesters,[2][3][4][5] two Ukrainian soldiers[6] and one Russian Cossack paramilitary.[7] On 10 August 2016, Russia accused the Special Forces of Ukraine of conducting a raid near the Crimean town of Armiansk which killed two Russian servicemen. The government of Ukraine dismissed the report as a provocation.[8] Ten people were forcibly disappeared between 2014 and 2016 and were still missing as of 2017.[9]
Civilian casualties of the war in DonbasA mural of Ukrainian soldiers who died during the war in Donbas in 2014
The overall number of estimated deaths in the war in Donbas, from 6 April 2014 until 31 December 2021, was 14,200–14,400. This includes about 6,500 pro-Russian separatist forces, 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and 3,404 civilians.[10] This number includes non-combat military deaths, as well as deaths from mines and unexploded ordnance. The vast majority of the deaths took place in the first year of the war, when major combat took place before the Minsk agreements.
Initially, the known number of Ukrainian military casualties varied widely due to the Ukrainian Army drastically understating its casualties,[17] as reported by medics, activists and soldiers on the ground, as well as at least one lawmaker.[17][18][19][20][21] Several medical officials reported they were overstretched due to the drastic number of casualties.[17] Eventually, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry stated that the numbers recorded by the National Museum of Military History were the official ones, although still incomplete,[22] with 4,638 deaths (4,500 identified and 138 unidentified) cataloged by 1 December 2021.[11][12]
According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 1,175 of the Ukrainian servicemen died due to non-combat causes by 5 March 2021.[23] Subsequently, the military did not publish new figures on their non-combat losses, stating they could be considered a state secret.[24]
The following table does not include the 298 deaths from the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 or the deaths of Ukrainian servicemen, which are listed separately.
At the beginning of June 2015, the Donetsk region's prosecutors reported 1,592 civilians had gone missing in government-controlled areas, of which 208 had been located.[32] At the same time, a report by the United Nations stated 1,331–1,460 people were missing, including at least 378 soldiers and 216 civilians. 345 unidentified bodies, of mostly soldiers, were also confirmed to be held at morgues in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast or buried.[33] In all, as of late October, 774 people were missing according to the government,[34] including 271 soldiers.[35] By the end of December 2017, the number of confirmed missing on the Ukrainian side was 402,[36] including 123 soldiers.[37] The separatists also reported 433 missing on their side by mid-December 2016,[38] and 321 missing by mid-February 2022.[30]
As of mid-March 2015, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), 1,553 separatists had been released from captivity during prisoner exchanges between the two sides.[39] Subsequently, Ukraine released another 322 people by late February 2016,[40][41][42][43] while by September, 1,598 security forces members and 1,484 civilians had been released by the rebels.[44] 1,110 separatist fighters and supporters, including 743 civilians, were reportedly still being held by Ukrainian forces as of late March 2016.[45] The figure of separatist prisoners was updated to 816, including 287–646 civilians, in December.[46][38] At the end of May 2015, the Ukrainian commander of Donetsk airport, Oleg Kuzminykh, who was captured during the battle for the complex, was released.[47]
In December 2017, a large prisoner exchange took place where the rebels released 73 out of 176 prisoners they were holding, while Ukraine released 306 out of 380 of their prisoners. Out of those that were released by Ukraine, 29 brought to the exchange point refused to go back to separatist-held territory, while 40 who were already previously released did not show up for the exchange. Meanwhile, out of those released by the rebels, 32 were soldiers. This brought the overall number of prisoners released by the rebels to 3,215.[36] Among those still held by the separatists, 74 were soldiers.[48] The number of released prisoners was updated to 3,224 in late June 2018,[49] while the number of those still held by the rebels was put at 113.[50] At the end of December 2019, a new prisoner exchange took place, with Ukraine releasing 124 separatist fighters and their supporters, while 76 prisoners, including 12 soldiers, were returned to Ukraine by the rebels. Another five or six prisoners released by the separatists decided to stay in rebel-controlled territories.[51][52][53]
Foreign fighters
Foreign volunteers have been involved in the conflict, fighting on both sides. The NGO Cargo 200 reported that they documented the deaths of 1,479 Russian citizens while fighting as part of the rebel forces.[54] The United States Department of State estimated 400–500 of these were regular Russian soldiers.[16] Two Kyrgyz and one Georgian have also been killed fighting on the separatist side.[55][56] Additionally, at least 262 foreign-born Ukrainian citizens or foreigners died on the Ukrainian side.[57] One of those killed was the former Chechen rebel commander Isa Munayev.[58]
In late August 2015, according to a reported leak by a Russian news site, Business Life (Delovaya Zhizn), 2,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine by 1 February 2015.[59][60]
As a consequence of the conflict, large swaths of the Donbas region have become contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).[66] According to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, in 2020 Ukraine was of one of the most mine-affected countries in the world, with nearly 1,200 mine/ERW casualties since the beginning of the conflict in 2014.[67] A report by UNICEF released in December 2019 said that 172 children had been injured or killed due to landmines and other explosives.[68][69]
On 21 September 2022, Russia's Ministry of Defence confirmed that 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed in combat.[91] It also claimed 61,207 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 49,368 wounded by this point.[92][93][94] For February and April 2023, Russia claimed Ukrainian forces' losses amounted to 26,000 troops.[95][96] In addition, the DPR confirmed that by 22 December 2022, 4,163 of their servicemen had been killed and 17,329 wounded.[97] Subsequently, leaked US intelligence documentation cited the Russian FSB that Russian forces suffered 110,000 casualties by 28 February 2023.[98]
According to BBC News Russian and the Mediazona news website, out of 30,003 Russian soldiers and contractors whose deaths they had documented by 3 August 2023, 7.9 per cent (2,362) were officers, while 8.7 per cent (2,607) were Motorized Rifle Troops and 6.3 per cent (1,876) were members of the Russian Airborne Forces (VDV). In addition, 10.6 per cent (3,167) of Russian soldiers whose deaths had been confirmed were people who were mobilized, while 18.8 per cent (5,637) were convicts.[80] The BBC further stated that "Every week, we discover new evidence of Russian military funerals in different localities of Russia, which were not reported by local authorities. Based on these observations, we can assume that the list of confirmed losses maintained by the BBC contain at least 40–60% fewer names of the dead than actually buried in Russia."[99] Thus, the BBC stated that the actual death toll could be over 52,000, counting only Russian servicemen and contractors (i.e. excluding DPR/LPR militia). Mediazona added that "the real toll is likely in the tens of thousands."[80]
Shrine to Ukrainian soldiers killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022.
Postage stamps depicting Russian soldiers killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022.
According to an analysis by the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Russia suffered more combat deaths in the first year of the war than in all of its wars since World War II combined, including the Soviet and Russian wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. CSIS estimated Russia suffered an average of roughly 5,000 to 5,800 military fatalities per month over the first year of the war. In comparison, Russia suffered somewhere between 13,000 and 25,000 fatalities in Chechnya over a period of 15 years and the Soviet Union also suffered roughly 14,000 to 16,000 combat fatalities in Afghanistan. Thus, according to CSIS's analysis, the average rate of Russian fatalities per month over the first year of the conflict in Ukraine was at least 25 times more than in Chechnya and at least 35 times more than in the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan.[100]
Meanwhile, Ukraine confirmed its forces had suffered 10,000 killed and 30,000 wounded by the start of June 2022,[101][102] while 7,200 troops were missing,[103] including 5,600 captured.[104] At the height of the fighting in May and June 2022, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy[105] and presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were being killed in combat daily,[106] while presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych stated 150 soldiers were being killed and 800 wounded daily.[107] Mid-June, Davyd Arakhamia, Ukraine's chief negotiator with Russia, told Axios that between 200 and 500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed every day.[108] By late July, Ukrainian daily losses fell to around 30 killed and about 250 wounded.[105] As of mid-April 2023, around 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained missing, of which some 60-65 per cent were believed to be prisoners.[109]
With respect to Russian military losses, Ukrainian estimates tended to be high, while Russian estimates of their own losses tended to be low. Combat deaths can be inferred from a variety of sources, including satellite imagery and video image of military actions.[110] According to a researcher at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden, regarding Russian military losses, Ukraine's government was engaged in a misinformation campaign aimed to boost morale and Western media were generally happy to accept its claims, while Russia was "probably" downplaying its own casualties. Ukraine also tended to be quieter about its own military fatalities.[111] According to BBC News, Ukrainian claims of Russian fatalities were including the injured as well.[82][83][84] Analysts warned about accepting the Ukrainian claims as fact, as Western countries were emphasizing the Russian military's toll, while Russian news outlets have largely stopped reporting on the Russian death toll.[112] In early June 2022, the Svetlogorsk City Court in the Kaliningrad region ruled that a list of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, published by privately owned news websites, constituted "classified information" and its publication could be considered a criminal offense.[113][114]
Paul Poast, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, extrapolated and made a prediction in late June 2022, that approximately 125,000 deaths would occur in the first year of the war, based on the daily average fatality rates.[115] The Peace Research Institute Oslo estimated 81,000 died in the conflict in 2022.[116]
Many notable Ukrainians, Russians and other nationals lost their lives during the conflict, either while serving in the armed forces or as civilian casualties.
By December 2022, 19 of Ukraine's 24 oblasts had been documented by open-source intelligence as having civilian deaths.[citation needed] On the one-year anniversary of the invasion, Ukraine's chief prosecutor feared that 100,000 civilians had been killed in the conflict while confirming that 21,500 were still considered to be missing.[119] Meanwhile, the United Nations confirmed that by 16 July 2023, 9,287 civilians had been killed and 16,384 had been injured, but it is thought that the real number is higher.[72]
By 17 February 2023, the Ukrainian prosecutor general announced that at least 461 children had been killed since the start of the invasion, with a further 923 wounded.[120] Most victims among children were from the Donetsk region. At least 55 of the war-related child deaths were from the Kyiv area and another 34 were from Kharkiv.[121][122] According to Ukraine, 350 children have also been reported missing, and 16,222 deported, as of 6 February 2023.[123] The United Nations cited information that Ukrainian shelling of border areas in the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk Oblasts killed 58 people,[124] while an alleged Ukrainian attack on drilling platforms in the Black Sea near Crimea reportedly left seven workers missing.[125] In addition, due to missiles striking the Polish village of Przewodów in Lublin Voivodeship on 15 November 2022, two Polish civilians were killed.[126]
Paul Urey and Dylan Healy, two British aid workers were captured by Russian forces,[209] Healy was charged with 'forcible seizure of power' and undergoing 'terrorist' training,[210] but later released on 22 September 2022[211] while Urey died in captivity.[187] An American citizen was also detained by pro-Russian separatists forces and accused of 'participation in pro-Ukrainian protests'.[212] He was released on 28 October 2022,[213] and reached Ukrainian-controlled territory by 14 December.[214]
Foreign fighters and volunteers
Excluding the Russian and Ukrainian military casualties, at least 308 combatants and volunteers, foreign citizens or foreign-born, were killed during the war. By January 2023, another 1,000 had been wounded while fighting on the Ukrainian side.[215] Below is a list of the nationalities of the foreign fighter casualties.
Dead foreign fighters of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
A Peruvian and two British citizens were also reported missing while fighting alongside the Ukrainian military,[362][363][364] while 20 Kyrgyz went missing while fighting for Russia.[335]
Identification and repatriation
File:18-. Росіяни втекли, але лишили тисячі трупів своїх солдатів.webmVideo published by the Ukrainian defense ministry detailing how Ukraine disposes of dead Russians.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations, announced on 27 February 2022, that the country had reached out to the International Committee of the Red Cross for help in the repatriation effort of the bodies of killed Russian soldiers.[365] Due to concerns that Russia was not reporting the number or any casualties of soldiers in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry began issuing appeals that same day for relatives of Russian soldiers to help identify wounded, captured, or killed soldiers. The initiative, called Ishchi Svoikh (Russian: Ищи Своих, lit. 'Look for Your Own'), appeared aimed in part at undermining morale and support for the war in Russia and was quickly blocked by the Russian government's media regulator the day the initiative began at the request of Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office.[366][111]
Ukrainian authorities began using facial recognition technology supplied to them by Clearview AI on 12 March 2022, to help identify the deceased, along with potentially using it to uncover Russian spies, vet people at checkpoints and potentially combat misinformation. The Chief Executive of Clearview claimed that the technology could be more effective than matching fingerprints or other identifiable aspects of the individual, although a study by US Department of Energy highlighted the concern of decomposition reducing the effectiveness.[367][368] Kyiv authorities have also reached out to the International Commission on Missing Persons, which was formed to help after the 1990s Balkan conflicts and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, and identifies individuals by collecting DNA samples from the deceased and families to cross match. The organization will also document the location of the body and how the individual died.[369]
As Russian soldiers began to retreat the identification of the dead civilians who had been unreported due to communication issues and constant fighting began to be reported. Documentation and identification of the bodies began with many hastily dug graves and rubble being cleared away to photograph and identify the bodies as well as count the number involved. Handwritten tags and passports have been attached to the bodies after identification before they are taken by coroners and officials.[370] In some locations villagers kept track of the deceased, such as in Yahidne, a village north of Kyiv, where they used a school basement wall to write the names of the deceased while under Russian control.[371]
As of late May 2022, Ukrainian authorities had stored at least 137 bodies of Russian soldiers that were collected near Kyiv,[372] as well as 62 in the Kharkiv region.[373] During June, the bodies of 374 Russian soldiers were exchanged for the bodies of 365 Ukrainian servicemen between Ukraine and Russia.[374][375][376][377]
Amputations
On 2 August 2023, Wall Street Journal investigation found that the number of Ukrainian amputations to be between 20 and 50,000. For both military and civilians. In comparison, during World War One 41,000 British and 67,000 Germans needed amputations.[378]
Russia claimed to have captured 572 Ukrainian soldiers by 2 March 2022,[379] while Ukraine claimed 562 Russian soldiers were being held as prisoners as of 20 March,[380] with 10 previously reported released in prisoner exchanges for five Ukrainian soldiers and the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov.[381][382] Subsequently, the first large prisoner exchange took place on 24 March, when 10 Russian and 10 Ukrainian soldiers, as well as 11 Russian and 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors, were exchanged.[383][384][385] Among the released Ukrainian soldiers was one of 13 Ukrainian border-guard members captured during the Russian attack on Snake Island.[386] Later, on 1 April 86 Ukrainian servicemen were exchanged[387] for an unknown number of Russian troops.[388]
On 8 March, a Ukrainian defense reporter with The Kyiv Independent announced that the Ukrainian government was working towards having Russian POWs help revive Ukraine's economy in full compliance with international law. Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, reported that a platoon of the 74th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade from Kemerovo Oblast surrendered to Ukraine, saying they "didn't know that they were brought to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians".[389] Ukraine held a series of press conferences with about a dozen POWs, where the POWs made comments against the invasion, how they had been manipulated and for the conflict to end. While some have raised concerns that the conferences breach the Geneva Convention through potential unnecessary humiliation, US journalists who spoke to POWs independently of the conference claimed there was no intervention by Ukraine officials, by physical or mental coercion.[citation needed] According to The Guardian, while it was likely that Ukraine was using the discomfort of captured soldiers for propaganda purposes, still the videos succeeded in showing the Russian servicemen's "authentic sense" of regret for having come to Ukraine.[390]Amnesty International argued that Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention prohibits videos of captured soldiers.[391] Captured Ukrainian soldiers with British citizenship were recorded calling for Boris Johnson to arrange for them to be freed in exchange for pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuck. The videos were broadcast separately on Rossiya 24 TV channel, causing MP Robert Jenrick, to call the videos a "flagrant breach" of the Geneva Convention. A Russian spokeswoman claimed that she had also told Johnson during a phone call about the men's treatment that the UK should "show mercy" to the Ukrainian citizens by stopping military aid to the Ukrainian government when asked to show the men mercy.[392]
On 11 March it was stated by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry that Russian armed forces were attempting to coerce Ukrainian POW's to fight for Russia in exchange for amnesty.[citation needed] The head of the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for POW Treatment, Iryna Vereshchuk, raised concerns that Russia had not released information to Ukrainian authorities on the location of any Ukrainian POW's and the International Red Cross had not been allowed to see them, as of 16 March.[393]
By 21 April, Russia claimed that 1,478 Ukrainian troops had been captured during the course of the siege of Mariupol.[394] On 22 April, Yuri Sirovatko, Minister of Justice of the Donetsk People's Republic, claimed that some 3,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war were held in the territory of the DPR.[395] On 20 May, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers had been taken prisoner over the previous five days as a result of the surrender of the last defenders of Mariupol, entrenched inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.[396] On 26 May, Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador of the Luhansk People's Republic to Russia, claimed that around 8,000 Ukrainian POWs were held within the territory of the DPR and LPR.[397] According to a statement by Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Minister of Defence, in early June 2022, 6,489 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[398]
In a report by The Independent on 9 June, it cited an intelligence report that more than 5,600 Ukrainian soldiers had been captured, while the number of Russian servicemen being held as prisoners had fallen to 550, from 900 in April, following several prisoner exchanges.[104] In contrast, the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper claimed 1,000 Russian soldiers were being held as prisoners as of 20 June.[399]
According to Ukraine, as of 30 December 2022, 3,392 Ukrainian servicemen were being held by Russia as prisoners of war, while 15,000 soldiers and civilians were missing.[400] The ICMP also stated a month earlier that 15,000 people were missing since the start of the Russian invasion.[401] The following day, 31 December 140 Ukrainian servicemen were released in a prisoner exchange, bringing the number of released prisoners from Russian captivity to 1,464 servicemen and 132 civilians.[402] By 7 August, the number of prisoners released by Russia rose to 2,598.[403] At least 800 Russian soldiers had also been confirmed to have been released by late February 2023.[404]
A study of Russian prisoners of war captured by Ukraine found that 55% of the soldiers had been motivated to fight to "improve their livelihoods", while 36% were ideologically motivated.[405]
^The deaths of the Russian soldiers have not been confirmed by their government and have possibly been included in the toll of dead rebel fighters.
^Out of the 1,185 civilians and militants killed in the Luhansk region by 15 February 2015,[26] 456 were civilians who died by 29 October.[27] In addition, 526 of the civilians and militants died in Luhansk city alone by 11 September,[28] of which 300 were confirmed as civilians by 31 August.[29]
^See table here for a detailed breakdown of civilian deaths by oblast, according to Ukrainian authorities.
^The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine uses the terms "combat losses" and "liquidated".[81] According to the BBC, these figures include wounded soldiers,[82][83][84] while others interpret the figures to be referring to only those killed.[85][86][87]
^In 2022, 4,746 civilians were confirmed killed,[71] of which 1,285 died outside of Mariupol and Volnovakha.[1] By 14 June 2023, the number of confirmed deaths, excluding those in Mariupol, and Volnovakha, reached 1,561,[2] for a total of 5,022 confirmed killed when including the two cities. According to the city government, the number of deaths in Mariupol was more than 25,000.[3] When taking this into account, the overall number of civilians killed could be up to 26,561.
^ ab"Книга пам'яті загиблих" [Memorial Book to the Fallen]. Herman Shapovalenko, Yevhen Vorokh, Yuriy Hirchenko (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
^ abThe Museum of Military History also lists separately 138 currently unidentified soldiers who were killed: 65 at Krasnopolye cemetery,[7] 63 at Kushugum cemetery [8] and 10 at Starobilsk cemetery.[9]
^Shapovalenko, Herman; Yevhen Vorokh; Yuriy Hirchenko. Книга пам'яті загиблих [Memorial Book to the Fallen]. memorybook.org.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 12 April 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
^The DPR stated 4,176 of its servicemen were killed and 17,379 wounded between 1 January and 22 December,[10][11] of which 13 died and 50 were wounded between 1 January and 25 February 2022,[12] leaving a total of 4,163 killed and 17,329 wounded in the period of the Russian invasion.
^The DPR stated 1,199 of its civilians were killed in its territories between 1 January 2022 and 11 May 2023,[13][14] of which 8 died between 1 January and 25 February 2022,[15] leaving a total of 1,191 killed in the period of the Russian invasion.
^The JCCC stated that 4,409 civilians had been killed since the start of the invasion by 9 January 2023: 640 within the original borders of the DPR, and 3,769 killed in the areas since occupied by the DPR.[16]
^"MVEP potvrdio smrt hrvatskog državljanina u Ukrajini". Vecernji (in Croatian). 16 September 2022. Andro Fabijanić worked for the association "For Heroes" from the city of Dnipro, which delivered bandages and other medical aid to Ukrainian fighters.
^"The Ukrainian Lebanese are witnesses to the war.. and victims" (in Arabic). 1 April 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023. Therefore, a number of Lebanese-Ukrainian youths who hold the rank of lieutenant and have required specializations in the army were quickly accepted into its ranks. ...unfortunately, with the martyrdom of the young man, Hussein al-Mahdi, 38, who was originally from southern Lebanon, and the young man, Ahmed Omar Abu al-Aila Zakaria, from northern Lebanon, and they are two married young men who hold Ukrainian citizenships.
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