Regarding the Russian dead "leaks". As with any leak from either side, there's simply no way to verify whether it's true or not. These are just numbers, without proof. If you are going to blindly trust the "leak" of Russian casualties, then I would expect you to apply the same (lack of) logic to the "leaks" of Ukrainian casualties. The only thing that makes it seem a little more likely to be real compared to previous leaks is that it largely lines up with Media Zones data when it is recycled based on its delays in reporting to 2025 and 2026. I previously estimated that both Ukraine and Russia suffered around 500,000-600,000 kia. This "leaked" data estimates that there are about 504,000 Kias based on the delay in the death records being sent. However, while this works out well, it does not confirm or even indicate that these leaks are real. This can easily be faked just to legitimize the extrapolation that many have made to media area data, where the statistics become a little murkier compared to their "absolute minimum" of 286,000 Kia death records. That doesn't change the fact that these numbers, in my opinion, are probably somewhat accurate to the actual death toll. But I think it's important not to just blindly assume that any publication of casualty data is automatically 100% legitimate and official numbers.

Regarding the Russian dead "leaks". As with any leak from either side, there's simply no way to verify whether it's true or not. These are just numbers, without proof. If you are going to blindly trust the "leak" of Russian casualties, then I would expect you to apply the same (lack of) logic to the "leaks" of Ukrainian casualties. The only thing that makes it seem a little more likely to be real compared to previous leaks is that it largely lines up with Media Zones data when it is recycled based on its delays in reporting to 2025 and 2026. I previously estimated that both Ukraine and Russia suffered around 500,000-600,000 kia. This "leaked" data estimates that there are about 504,000 Kias based on the delay in the death records being sent. However, while this works out well, it does not confirm or even indicate that these leaks are real. This can easily be faked just to legitimize the extrapolation that many have made to media area data, where the statistics become a little murkier compared to their "absolute minimum" of 286,000 Kia death records. That doesn't change the fact that these numbers, in my opinion, are probably somewhat accurate to the actual death toll. But I think it's important not to just blindly assume that any publication of casualty data is automatically 100% legitimate and official numbers.