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Ukrainian and Belarusian Hackers Expose Russia’s Secret War Death Records
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Russia’s state statistics agency, Rosstat, has recorded nearly 400,000 deaths linked to the war in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to confidential government data obtained by hackers and reviewed by Bloomberg on November 8.
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The findings are based on more than 11 million death certificates containing information about the deceased, including their age, place of residence, and location of death. The records were obtained by the Belarusian opposition-linked hacking group Cyber Partisans and the Ukrainian hacker operation Silent Crow.
The leaked records show that nearly 392,700 deaths registered between February 24, 2022, and late August 2026 were directly linked to the war in Ukraine. The connections were established through official classification codes or descriptions in the death certificates mentioning military operations, shelling, drone strikes, and other war-related incidents.
However, the actual number of Russian deaths is likely considerably higher, as the records do not account for all battlefield fatalities. Some soldiers remain missing, while others have not been identified or died months after sustaining injuries. Additional deaths may have been registered under unrelated categories or excluded from official records altogether.
Silent Crow estimates that the total number of deaths could reach approximately 450,000. Its calculations include non-combat fatalities and records that do not explicitly specify a cause of death.
The figures suggest that Russian military deaths rose sharply following the early stages of the full-scale invasion, as Moscow’s troops faced sustained resistance in eastern Ukraine and Ukrainian forces strengthened their defensive operations.
On November 1, the Cyber Partisans and Silent Crow hacking groups claimed to have infiltrated Rosstat’s internal systems, accessing roughly 25,000 computers and obtaining approximately 23 terabytes of data, including information on Russian military casualties.
Rosstat subsequently acknowledged that its systems had been targeted by cyberattacks between October 29 and November 1. However, the agency denied finding evidence that its databases had been compromised or confidential information leaked.
The agency also confirmed that parts of its infrastructure had been disrupted and said it was working to restore affected systems.
The leaked data shows that nearly 37,800 Russian military deaths have been recorded in 2026. However, Bloomberg cautioned that the actual toll is likely higher, as fatalities can take months to be officially registered.
More than half of these deaths were recorded in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have faced difficulties advancing against heavily fortified Ukrainian defenses.
As Russian military losses frequently outpace recruitment and Moscow’s forces struggle to make significant battlefield gains, the Kremlin may soon face pressure to intensify its mobilization efforts, Bloomberg reported.
The report comes amid continued heavy Russian losses reported by Ukrainian forces. On November 8, Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) announced a new single-day record for Russian personnel casualties, reporting 801 troops killed or wounded in drone operations.
According to figures published on the SBS’s official online dashboard, Ukrainian drone operators eliminated 281 Russian soldiers and wounded another 520, marking the highest daily total reported by the force.
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