Russia’s Social Insurance Fund stops publishing disability data after journalists used the information to track injured soldiers

To estimate the number of soldiers disabled by injuries sustained in the war in Ukraine, investigative journalists at Mediazona studied records released by Russia’s Social Insurance Fund on disability payments. On Wednesday, Mediazona noticed that the agency no longer reports these data. In fact, the entire “Analytics” section has disappeared from the Social Insurance Fund’s website.

Before August 2023, the agency released monthly updates on the number of people with disabilities in each federal subject of Russia who received official disabled status, including data on Russians whose disability resulted from a military injury.

The Social Insurance Fund has not said why it is now withholding this information. “Please contact the Federal State Statistics Service for these data,” a representative told Mediazona.

Based on the records published until June 2023, Mediazona journalists concluded that more than 5,000 people had received disabled status due to injuries sustained after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.