Kremlin tells regional governments to stop publishing obituaries of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine
At the request of the Russian Defense Ministry, the government of the Republic of Khakassia stopped publishing obituaries of the soldiers killed in Ukraine in order to conceal the losses of the Russian army, reports the news outlet Sibir.Realii, citing sources close to the regional authorities.
According to one of the sources, the local government's press service has stopped publishing data on the military and mercenaries from the Wagner PMC who died in Ukraine, as this information is used by independent Russian media to estimate the losses of the Russian army.
On April 26, the last obituary published by the government of Khakassia was about the death of a local MP who fought as part of Wagner PMC near Bakhmut.
Open sources provide a different estimate of Russian losses than the numbers provided by the Russian Defense Ministry. In September 2022, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoygu, said that 5937 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine.
At the same time, independent media have already identified more than 25 thousand killed Russian soldiers. Journalists believe that during the invasion of Ukraine, Russia, according to the most conservative estimates, could have lost 50 thousand people killed. The total number of people who were lost due to injury or death could be at least 225 thousand.
Earlier, a mass grave with the symbols of the Wagner PMC was found in the Russian city of Novosibirsk. At least 200 people are believed to be buried there.
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, since the beginning of the war, the total combat losses of Russian troops in the territory of Ukraine have amounted to approximately 216,650 people. Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that over the past day 470 Russian soldiers were killed.