An insurance procurement order reveals that thousands of Russian soldiers have died in recent years

The newspaper Vedomosti has learned how many soldiers in the Russian army died in recent years. In 2015, the army lost 626 soldiers, after losing 790 a year earlier. Russia lost another 596 and 630 soldiers in 2013 and 2012, respectively. These deaths were reported in a state procurement order for 2018-2019 insurance on Russian soldiers, according to Vedomosti. The military doesn’t say how these thousands of servicemen died.

In its report, Vedomosti draws attention to the spike in fatalities in 2014, when the Russian military participated in fighting in eastern Ukraine. Officially, Moscow has not acknowledged its role in Donetsk and Lugansk, but independent journalists have established repeatedly and persuasively that Russian troops fought on Ukrainian soil.

A former Defense Ministry official told Vedomosti that the Russian government insures all soldiers (both conscripts and volunteers), including officers, whose deaths are reflected in the data provided in the procurement order.

• The Russian Defense Ministry hasn’t published annual fatality statistics since 2010, but some of these data have reached the public by other channels. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, 478 soldiers died in 2010, 470 in 2009, and 471 in 2008.
• Military expert Anton Lavrov points out that speculation about what these numbers say about Russia’s involvement in armed conflicts abroad should take into account the gradual growth of the country’s standing army.