Hackers breach Russian statistics database: 412,576 records linked to dead servicemen found

Hacker groups Cyber Partizans and Silent Crow have broken into the database of Rosstat, Russia's federal statistics agency, and found 412,576 records linked to Russian servicemen who died in the war against Ukraine. Latvian National Armed Forces major and National Guard staff officer Jānis Slaidiņš described the findings on 15 November in the TV24 programme "Aktuālais par karadarbību Ukrainā" (Current Affairs on the War in Ukraine). The data offers a view of the scale of Russian losses, on which official information is limited.

What the data covers

Slaidiņš explained that the information covers the period from February 2022 to August this year. It includes not only deaths directly tied to combat but also other entries that could be linked to servicemen's deaths.

The hackers also counted deaths of people registered in Russia but living in Ukraine, as well as non-combat military losses. Deaths of men near the front line with no cause of death stated were included too.

Comparison with other figures

If the wounded are added to the dead, Russia's total losses are considerably higher. According to Ukraine's General Staff, which relies largely on drone-recorded footage, the number of killed and wounded Russian soldiers has reached 1,609,380. The latest General Staff report already cites 1,616,330 Russian losses.

The database of HUR, Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, lists 263,971 killed and 138,088 wounded. Slaidiņš said the numbers in the independent Russian database are growing faster than in HUR's data.

On the reliability of the data, Slaidiņš allowed that it cannot be ruled out that the publication is part of an information operation.