Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group lost over 17 000 fighters recruited from prisons in the battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, a new investigation by the BBC and @mediazona_en has discovered.This constitutes almost 90% of group’s overall losses during that campaign (thread) During recruitment campaigns in Russian prisons Prigozhin had always promised that recruited prisoners would be treated as equals, and not as second-class people. And officially while admitting that he lost 20,000 men in Bakhmut, he emphasised that only 50% of them were prisoners

Important milestone - @bbcrussian, @mediazzzona and a group of volunteers confirmed names of 20 451 Russian combatants KIA in Ukraine. 33% of these people were civilians before the invasion – volunteers, mobilized, prisoners and newly recruited members of Wagner PMC.🧵 We include only cases that we have been able to verify, so collected data does not reflect the full extent of KIA. We think that our list contains 50% fewer names than the actual number of soldiers that have been buried in Russia (we studied cemeteries in over60 Rus settlements)

Estimates of the Russian soldiers KIA vary greatly. But it’s not only the total number of losses which is important, but also what kind of specialists were killed. BBC established that Russia has over 900 elite specialists, whose training took years of effort, and mlns of $. Combined armed units of the Russian military have proven unprepared for assault operations. As a result, tasks that are generally assigned to infantrymen have had to be carried out by special forces, marines, and paratroopers.

Russian Ministry of Defence is trying to put a tap on all info about problems of the Russian army in #Ukraine. But dead soldiers keep telling their stories-and that narrative is very different from Moscow is trying to show. Here is what we found. Based on a study of 5700+ cases BBC's analysis suggests particularly heavy losses among junior officers. Overall, officers constitute 17% of Russian fatalities. But data suggests, that junior officers in particular are 3 times more likely to die than their subordinates.

What do we know about Russian military losses? June update. BBC keeps compiling a list of Russian soldiers killed in action. It already has 2 times more names that Russian MOD has acknowledged. Thread. We managed to identify 3052 Russian soldiers who were killed in Ukraine and buried in Russia. Real losses are definitely higher. That's why we also try to examine cemeteries in towns and cities of Russia. Some of them already have separate rows for servicemen killed in Ukraine

What do we know about #Russian army conscripts deployed to #Ukraine? Information about that is very limited and patchy, but here are some facts (guy on the left in this photo- Nikolay Polshikov, Russian conscript, #POW in Ukraine) #RussianUkrainianWar According to #Russian law a conscript can sign a contract and after 3 months of service. After that service in the army can become his paid job. However even before this war, there were many stories about conscripts allegedly being pressured to sign a contract.

What do we know about background and social position of #Russian soldiers, who are deployed in #Ukraine? BBC analysed publicly available info about 1083 Russian servicemen, who were killed in action. Here are some tendencies were found out. Thread Regions that reported the highest number of the losses are so called depressed or semi depressed, ie areas with high unemployment and a low standard of living. In Dagestan (93 reported deaths) or Buryatia (53 rep. deaths) it’s very hard to find a job (let alone well paid job)

Putin's spokesman said Russia “have suffered significant losses of troops". BBC was able to verify identities of the 1,083 Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine (they were reported by local officials or media in Russia). So what do we see and know? Thread Even if we talk about confirmed losses only - there is evidence that Russia has lost some of its best specialists, incl. elite spec. forces operators, highly skilled fighter pilots and some experienced commanders.

What do we definitely know about #Russian military casualties in #Ukraine? BBC in-depth research of verified military losses found some interesting tendencies \1 Roughly 20% of all verified losses are officers. The research was based on analysis of official statements by Russian governors, local media reports, posts by official accounts of universities, schools etc.