As a result of the operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region, at least 60 conscript soldiers were killed

In the summer and fall of 2024, at least 60 Russian conscripts who were in the Kursk region at the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive died, Important Stories found out. This follows from media reports, publications of relatives on social networks and the register of inheritance cases.

The average age of dead conscripts is about 20 years. Among them were conscripts from 34 Russian regions: five each from the Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk territories, four from the Altai Territory, and three each from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Komi, Buryatia and Dagestan.

Almost half of them died within the first seven days after the start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation on August 6, 2024. However, conscripts continued to suffer losses throughout September 2024 - at least 20 people died that month.

According to messages from relatives on social networks, on the very first day, August 6, 2024, five conscripts from a howitzer platoon of the 30th artillery brigade (military unit 62048) were killed in Novoivanovka. There is still no information about the fate of four more from the same platoon.

At least eight conscripts each died on August 7 and 10, most of them served in the 488th regiment (military unit 12721 in Klintsy, Bryansk region). Two from the 473rd District Training Center (military unit 31612 in Elani, Sverdlovsk region) were at positions in Sverdlikov directly on the border with Ukraine - they died on the second day of the invasion.

Despite reports that appeared in the very first days about the participation of conscripts in hostilities, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not withdraw them from the front. This, for example, is evidenced by the death of seven people at once from September 13 to 14: Ilya Kuzhbalov, Konstantin Zakharenok, Sergei Sivtsov, Ilya Tikhobaev, Ignat Vasilkin, Maxim Kholmovka and Danila Pichugin. At least two of them served in the 1140th Airborne Artillery Regiment (military unit 45377 in Pskov).

All of them could have died as a result of an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on a rural school in Vesele, the relatives themselves write about this on social networks. It was there, 3.5 km from the Ukrainian border, that the Russian command stationed conscripts. According to the Z-channel “Military Correspondents of the Russian Spring”, the school building was destroyed by an American high-precision aerial bomb. On the same days, Ukrainian forces broke through the border and reached Vesele.

According to “Important Stories” estimates, more than 60 more conscript soldiers may be listed as missing in the Kursk region. After reports of their search appeared, we were unable to find any mention of these servicemen in the media, exchange lists, obituaries and the registry of probate affairs. Some conscripts, wanted by relatives in August 2024, subsequently left the encirclement on their own. Almost two dozen soldiers, with whom there was no contact in the first days of the Ukrainian Armed Forces offensive, were later able to get out of the Kursk region alive, their activity on social networks shows.

The parents of the missing conscripts are still waiting for information about what exactly happened to them. Dozhd journalists told the stories of four such families. “In this situation, you both want the truth and don’t want it,” shares one of the mothers. - Still, when you live with hope, you live. And when they say that he really is gone, it’s very painful, very scary to hear that.”

Before the start of the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region, 159 Russian conscripts were killed during the war, journalists from the BBC Russian Service wrote . This brings the death toll to 219 since February 2022. In April 2025, the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live” published a list of 217 names of conscripts who died during the war. The list included not only combat losses: 18 people lost their lives as a result of suicide or at the hands of fellow soldiers, the project stated.

If you have information about the participation of Russian conscripts in hostilities in the Kursk region in 2024, you can contact “Important Stories” by mail: efeoktistov@istories.media.