The third party to which the leadership of the Russian army appears to mask the number of lost soldiers on the battlefield
Luhansk – June 22, 2025: Militari participates in a training with an assault unit of the separate motorized infantry brigade no. 25 of the combined army of the Zapad group [Vest] of Russian armed forces. Photo: Alexander Reka / Zuma Press / Profimedia
The Russian military commanders catalog the disappeared soldiers in the battles of Ukraine as deserters in documents to hide the real magnitude of the losses on the battlefield, writes July 28, the Russian History publication.
By labeling the disappeared soldiers as deserters, Russia not only hides the real losses in the war, but also avoids the payment of social damages for the families of the deceased military, the quoted publication noted.
Moscow and Kiev rarely report the losses suffered, and the Ukrainian publication The Kyiv Independent mention that it could not independently check the figures. Ukraine estimates that the total number of Russian victims during the large -scale war has already exceeded 1 million.
History has received over 50 complaints from the relatives of the missing soldiers, sent to the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and discovered similar falsification of documents in at least 25 units from 11 Russian regions. In most cases, the forged documents claim that the soldiers have disappeared during the fighting missions.
Although the commanders are not allowed to declare a deserter soldier for no reason, the press investigation found that, in practice, the mere absence at the service call can lead to its erroneous designation as a “deserter”.
History notes that he also discovered a case in which a soldier was officially declared deserter even after his death and funeral.
Between January and June 2025, the Russian military courts processed more than 26,000 cases in which it was requested to declare missing or deceased persons, which exceeds the total for the entire previous year, wrote on June 5, another Russian independent media channel, Mediazona.
At the same time, about 50,500 Russian soldiers were officially registered as deserters in 2024 and accused of escape from military service, History reported on March 5, citing the OSINT FRONTOLIGENCE INSIGHT group.
The Russian Independent publication, in collaboration with the Russian BBC service, has previously identified almost 120,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine, mentioning that the real figure could be much higher.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces announced, in its bulletin issued on Monday, that Russian military losses reached about 1,050,250 people, including killed, injured or missing soldiers.
