Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000

WARSAW: The BBC and the independent Russian news site Mediazona said on Friday they had documented the deaths of around 70,000 Russian soldiers since the start of Russia´s invasion of Ukraine.

The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media, as well as tombstones in Russian cemeteries.

“We have identified the names of 70,112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine but the actual number is believed to be considerably higher,” the BBC said.

“Some families do not share details of their relatives´ deaths publicly -- and our analysis does not include names we were unable to check, or the deaths of militia in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,” the British broadcaster added.