1/ As Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day, its death toll from the ongoing war in Ukraine is so enormous that in parts of the country it is approaching or exceeding the number of casualties sustained in World War II. Vast memorials are being installed across the country. ⬇️
2/ In Naberezhnye Chelny, a recently inaugurated memorial (video above) commemorates the dead of four wars. A single column contains 67 names of those who died in Afghanistan and Chechnya. 800 more names are listed for Ukraine, covering 16 columns.
3/ Another memorial in Kyzyl, the capital of the republic of Tuva, lists 1,332 of the 1,700 residents who are known to have died in the war. Tuva, like other Russian ethnic republics, has suffered a disproportionate number of casualties.
4/ Orekhovo-Zuyevo in the Moscow region inaugurated a memorial in September 2025 listing 210 casualties. By comparison, 15 residents of the town died during the ten-year war in Afghanistan, and another 20 during the Chechen campaigns. Space is provided for a further 160 names.
5/ No region of the country has sustained more casualties than Bashkortostan. A memorial inaugurated in Birsk in the summer of 2025 lists 188 fallen in Ukraine, against 3 for Afghanistan and 4 for Chechnya. Space for another 140 names is provided on additional steles.
6/ In some places, casualties are approaching or have already exceeded those sustained in World War II (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War), previously Russia's bloodiest conflict.
7/ A memorial in the village of Bredy in the Chelyabinsk region lists 15 graduates of the local school who died in the war in Ukraine, against 14 who were killed in World War II.
8/ Meanwhile, in the Chuna district of the Irkutsk region, casualties have already reached two-thirds of those who died in World War II. A war memorial in the village of Chuna lists 320 dead in World War II, and was recently updated to list 215 dead in Ukraine.
9/ This amounts to 3.2% of all able-bodied men in the district aged between 18-65, or one in 31. The figure is much higher in some localities. In the Dzhidinsky district of Buryatia, 6% of all men aged 18 to 65 have died in the current war. /end
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