400,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine, with the loss of life price accelerating, knowledge hack reveals

A data leak from Russia’s statistics agency has revealed that nearly 400,000 Russians have been killed in Ukraine since 2022.

Hackers from the Belarusian pro-opposition group Cyber Partisans and the Ukrainian operation Silent Crow obtained data from Russia’s federal statistics agency, Rosstat.

The data suggests the war in Ukraine has become the country’s fourth most common cause of death over the past four years.

The two groups, both designated as ‘extremist organisations’ and banned in Russia, say they stole extensive data on the country’s economy, demographics and wartime casualties.

According to their findings, more than 392,700 death certificates issued between February 2022 and late August 2026 explicitly linked the deaths to the war. 

The records included references to terms such as ‘military operation’, ‘shelling’ and ‘drones’, either through official coding or handwritten descriptions.

The total includes not only active servicemen but also civilians killed in airstrikes and during Ukraine’s 2024 incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

However, the actual death toll is likely to be considerably higher, as the data does not account for soldiers missing in action or the estimated 27,000 foreign fighters believed to have been recruited into the military.

Not all deaths recorded were in combat, with over 14,000 cases describing the death of a soldier from non-military causes, including sickness, road accidents or suicide. 

Another 32,000 died from injuries they had sustained at least a year earlier. 

Janis Kluge, head of the Russia and Eurasia division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told The Moscow Times: ‘This is the most significant leak of data when it comes to Russian casualties.’

‘I think it’s established as a fact that the war has never been more deadly than it is right now.’

If accurate, the figures would make the war in Ukraine Russia’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War.

According to the data, Russia’s ethnic republics have suffered disproportionately from mobilisation and recruitment for the armed forces.

Meanwhile, major cities such as Moscow have accounted for a disproportionately low share of casualties relative to their population size.

According to researcher Maria Vyushkova, the Kremlin’s recruitment policies amounted to the ‘extermination of entire nations’ for some of Russia’s smallest ethnic groups.

The findings of the leak support previous accounts of minorities from poor regions being recruited with promises of big salaries and generous benefits. 

Meanwhile, the war rages on, with Russia on Monday battering Ukraine’s power grid again and Ukrainian forces hitting another of Russia’s biggest oil refineries.

The offensives came just hours before delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were due to meet for new US-brokered talks on how to end the fighting.

Nearly five years after Russia invaded its neighbour, the two countries remain locked in battle with no sign that either side is ready to budge from its demands. 

US President Donald Trump said in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday that Moscow and Kyiv are ‘very close’ to a deal, despite the ‘tremendous hatred’ between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He said that Ukraine would have ‘a little bit different shape’ under the settlement, but he didn’t elaborate.

Mr Trump has previously made claims about developments in the war which haven’t materialised.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Monday that it had targeted four electrical substations in Ukraine’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Vinnytsia regions. The attacks are part of Russia’s campaign to deny Ukrainian civilians heating, light and running water during the approaching winter.

Zelensky said on Monday that the European Union had agreed to activate a special emergency mechanism that speeds up funding for power grid repairs.

Russia launched 317 drones of various types including 105 jet-powered drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

Russian aerial attacks have pummelled Ukraine throughout the war, with gruesome consequences. A Russian glide bomb attack last week near the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 55 people at an aid distribution centre.

Meanwhile, long-range drones developed by Ukraine during the war started a fire at the KINEF oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, close to St Petersburg and more than 1,200km (745 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Leningrad Governor Alexander Drozdenko said on Monday.

Ukraine claimed in early October that its long-range strikes had neutralised more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces.

The last three-way talks, in Geneva in February, also took place amid continuing attacks. 

They delivered no significant progress in ending the war but some circumstances have changed.

Mr Trump, whose stance on the war has varied, has to reckon with Democrats taking over Congress in January following the US midterm elections. They could demand more support for Ukraine.

Russian state finances are under heavy strain due to the war and Ukraine’s economy is being choked by the relentless attacks.

In Abu Dhabi, a planned two days of talks beginning on Tuesday will look at what security guarantees would satisfy Russia, which sees Nato as a threat, and Ukraine, which wants to prevent future Russian invasions.

Putin has sought to sideline European countries and negotiate Ukraine’s future directly with Mr Trump. 

Moscow says European officials won’t be involved in the Abu Dhabi discussions, but French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Sunday that France and other European representatives would be in the UAE.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the meeting would focus on trilateral negotiations, with the US mediating between Russia and Ukraine.

‘You are aware that the Americans have their own channels of communication with the Europeans, as do the Ukrainians, and it appears they are already establishing their own methods of coordination,’ Peskov said. 

‘But, to reiterate, this is a matter of trilateral negotiations.’