Russia's losses in Ukraine rise faster than ever as US pushes for peace deal
www.bbc.com
A steep rise in soldiers' obituaries is documented by the BBC as part of its work in counting Russian war losses.

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Overall, the BBC has confirmed the names of almost 160,000 people killed fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine.

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The real death toll is believed to be much higher, and military experts we have consulted believe our analysis of cemeteries, war memorials and obituaries might represent 45-65% of the total.

That would put the number of Russian deaths at between 243,000 and 352,000.

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In October [2025], when a planned second Russia-US summit was eventually shelved, and then in November, when the US presented a 28-point peace proposal, an average of 322 obituaries were published per day - twice the average in 2024.

It is difficult to put increased Russian losses down to any one factor, but the Kremlin sees territorial gains as a way of influencing negotiations with the US in its favour: Putin aide Yuri Ushakov stressed recently that “recent successes” had had a positive impact.

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