Rosstat recorded the deaths of 11,335 foreigners who fought on Russia's side

What Rosstat recorded

Russia's state statistics agency (Rosstat) registered the deaths of 11,335 foreigners — people born outside Russia or holding citizenship of other states — who were recruited into the war against Ukraine, including through coercion, deception, or monetary payments. Bloomberg reported this on November 11, and the outlet DW, citing Rosstat, confirmed the figure of 11,335 dead. Kun.uz also reported this, citing Bloomberg.

Source of the data and counting methodology

The data comes from a Rosstat database containing more than 11 million death records, including information on citizenship, place of birth, and circumstances of death. The database was obtained by Belarusian hackers known as the Cyber Partisans and the Ukrainian hacker group Silent Crow, who subsequently passed the materials to journalists. The link between deaths and combat was determined by details in the documents: they contained wording such as 'special military operation,' 'shelling,' 'unmanned aerial vehicles,' as well as special codes. The calculation covered records for the period from February 24, 2022 to the end of August 2026.

Who died at the front

A significant portion of the foreigners recruited into the army are natives of the republics of the former USSR; among the countries by number of citizens killed at the front, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states stand out. Another roughly 3,700 of the dead held Ukrainian citizenship or were born on the territory of Ukraine after it gained independence. Address data shows that most of them lived in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, which are now under Russian occupation. According to Kun.uz, after the start of the armed attack on Ukraine, Russian security agencies in many cases forcibly sent local men from the territories of the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' and 'Luhansk People's Republic' into the army.