Russian losses are enormous: NYT analyzed all studies about the Russians killed in Ukraine

Specific data on Russia's loss is difficult to calculate. Even if they are accurate, Western estimates usually combine data on the injured. According to military experts, this category is too wide to fully explain the situation on the battlefield. For example, soldiers who have received mild injuries can recover quickly.

"What truly defines the army's ability to fight is irreparable, irreversible losses-servicemen who have died or had so serious injuries that they will never participate in the battles again," the publication reads. Both Ukraine and Russia attribute such statistics to the category of state secrets. Independent Russian journalists from "Mediazons" and BBC have found innovative ways of calculating killed and wounded in the Russian Federation.

The information is extracted from various sources, such as obituary, disability guides and notaries. Available data show that Russia has lost more soldiers in Ukraine than any industrialized country in armed conflict since World War II. As a result of such work, the most complete database of confirmed combat losses of the Russians was created: 78,000 soldiers by November, not including Ukrainian separatists and foreigners fighting on the side of Russia.

Media landscanes are incomplete, journalists say, as there are no traces of some dead soldiers. It is estimated that journalists recorded about half of all the deaths of the Russian military. Another independent Russian news agency "Medusa" in cooperation with "Media" and BBC conducted a statistical analysis of military losses. Their main source is the database of state notaries of Russia, which contains all cases of inheritance opened by relatives of fallen soldiers.

To do this, journalists needed to outsmart government programmers who were trying to prevent them from finding and downloading inheritance records. Such an analysis of excess mortality made it possible to estimate the total number of soldiers in Russia in almost 150,000 by the end of October. It should be reminded that on November 19, the Armed Forces reported the high losses of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation near Kupyansk.