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Russia’s 41st Army in Collapse: Leaked Documents Says Half Dead or Missing, Thousands on the Run
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russia’s 41st Combined Arms Army has suffered catastrophic losses in Ukraine, with half its troops either killed or missing and the other half either deserted or criminally prosecuted, according to internal documents leaked to Ukraine’s I Want to Live project on July 17.
The I Want to Live project is run by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate and provides a hotline for Russian soldiers wishing to surrender. The program guarantees humane treatment under the Geneva Conventions and safe surrender to Ukrainian forces.
The documents, reportedly provided by concerned Russian citizens, outline massive personnel losses as of June 1, 2025, including:
8,625 confirmed killed;
10,491 missing in action;
7,846 deserters classified as “unauthorized absences.”
“These documents expose the true scale of Russian losses in Ukraine,” the I Want to Live initiative stated.
The 41st Army is composed of the 35th, 74th, 55th, and 137th Motor Rifle Brigades, mostly recruited from Kemerovo, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, and Sverdlovsk regions, as well as the republics of Khakassia, Tuva, and the Altai Krai.
Most units have seen relentless combat and sustained devastating casualties near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
The 74th Brigade from the Kemerovo region has been hit hardest, with 2,479 troops confirmed dead, 2,732 missing, and 2,789 listed as deserters. Based on pre-war staffing levels of roughly 3,500 soldiers per brigade, the 74th has effectively lost two full rotations of personnel.
A similar fate has befallen the 35th Brigade from Altai Krai, which has reported 1,975 killed, 3,163 missing, and 2,229 deserters.
Even more stark is the data from the 55th Brigade from Tuva, which originally had a force of just 1,600 troops in 2016. As of June 2025, it has lost 1,430 dead and 1,467 missing, with another 1,616 Tuvan troops deserting rather than continue fighting thousands of miles from home.
The 137th Brigade has reported at least 1,158 killed, 2,319 missing, and 948 deserters.
One of the biggest revelations involves the sheer number of recent desertions. On May 31, 42 soldiers fled their units. Over one week, 175 troops deserted—roughly the size of half a battalion.
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Of these deserters, 28% were convicts recruited into so-called “V companies”—assault units comprised largely of prisoners promised early release in exchange for combat service. That percentage far exceeds the average 5–30% share of ex-convicts in regular Russian frontline units.
“These men are being used as expendable assault troops,” the report notes. “When they find a chance to escape, they take it. And many are never recaptured.”
An estimated 2,228 convict deserters from the 41st Army alone are believed to be at large in Russia’s rear areas.
The report also emphasizes that “V companies” are deployed only in motor rifle units, not in artillery, missile, or engineering formations, further underscoring their use as human cannon fodder.
Earlier, on the sidelines of the NATO summit on June 24, a senior NATO official stated that Russia has likely surpassed the threshold of one million total casualties in its war against Ukraine, including approximately 250,000 killed.
According to a UNITED24 Media correspondent, the official emphasized that Russian casualty rates remain “very, very high,” despite a recent tactical shift toward smaller, more mobile assault groups.
