2026 could become the deadliest year yet for the Russian military, with Russia potentially losing 230,000 soldiers killed during the year, according to The Economist.
The publication analyzed data that hacker groups Silent Crow and Cyber Partisans BY say they stole from a database belonging to Rostat, Russia's federal statistics service.
According to the data, Russia's total military death toll may have reached 504,000 by the end of August. The death toll has roughly doubled every year since the full-scale invasion began.
The data also indicate that the war has already claimed the lives of at least 0.9% of Russian men under the age of 60. Among men aged 35-49, the share exceeds 1%.
By comparison, the UALlosses project confirmed the deaths of 115,952 Ukrainian military personnel, with another 105,788 listed as missing in action. In relation to the male population of Ukraine before the war under the age of 60, the confirmed losses amount to about 1.1%.
While the authenticity of Rostat's entire database has not been definitively verified, the Economist notes that its data is consistent with independent estimates of Russian casualties.