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Russian hacker groups Kiberpartizany BY and Silent Crow claim they breached Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), stealing approximately 23 terabytes of data, including demographic and economic statistics and information on Russian casualties in Ukraine. Based on this stolen data, Kiberpartizany BY and Silent Crow have independently calculated the number of deaths resulting from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.

Kiberpartizany BY estimates 393,881 deaths, while Silent Crow puts the number at 450,100. The disparity arises from the differing methods of counting losses. Kiberpartizany BY counted only those deaths where military action or its consequences were listed as the cause, whereas Silent Crow included additional categories such as non-combat losses among military personnel, deaths classified as terrorist acts, and deaths of individuals originally registered in Russia who perished in occupied territories or Ukraine when the precise cause of death was unknown.

The importance of these figures is underscored by Russia’s lack of official statistics on combat losses since September 2022. Additionally, since 2024, Rosstat ceased publishing annual data on causes of death, complicating independent assessments of the war’s demographic impact. Access to Rosstat’s internal statistical materials might enable a more accurate reckoning of human losses.

For comparison, a joint database of BBC News Russian Service and Mediazona, which lists Russian servicemen killed and identified by name, contained around 286,000 names as of November 8. However, this list is believed to be incomplete, especially for recent months. Meduza and Mediazona’s joint study, using inheritance registry data, estimated 350,000 fallen Russian servicemen by the end of 2025.

The hackers’ estimates align with these independent studies, though further verification is needed to confirm their accuracy. Meduza and Mediazona are currently assessing the data’s authenticity and completeness, as medical documents’ causes of death may not accurately reflect the circumstances of a death, and Rosstat’s internal databases lack up-to-date information on missing individuals who might only be declared dead after an extended period.

If the leaked data’s authenticity and completeness are verified, this could become one of the most significant sources of information on the war’s demographic consequences for Russia.