At least 11,335 people born outside Russia have been killed in the war in Ukraine while fighting on the Russian side. This is shown by a Bloomberg analysis of a database attributed to Russia’s statistical agency, Rosstat.
The records cover the period from the end of February 2022 to the end of August 2026. They include people who died from almost 100 countries. The definition includes not only citizens of other countries, but also naturalized Russians or Russian citizens by birth who were born outside Russia.
Sharp rise in deaths
According to the analysis, around 630 deaths of foreigners directly linked to combat operations were recorded in 2022. By 2025, the number had already exceeded 5,500.
The data also point to a change in the geography of recruitment. In 2023 and 2024, the number of records concerning Nepali citizens increased. In 2024 and 2025, cases involving citizens of China and Sri Lanka rose, while from the end of 2025 there were more records concerning Colombia, Kenya and Nigeria.
Around 3,700 of those who died were Ukrainian citizens and/or were born in Ukraine. The journalists assume that in many of these cases they were residents of territories occupied by Russia. Around 80% of the remainder were born in countries of the former Soviet Union.
Around 6,000 of the people born outside Russia held Russian citizenship at the time of their deaths. The database contains no recorded deaths of North Korean citizens, despite the officially confirmed participation of North Korean servicemen in the war and the losses they have suffered.
Moscow disputes the authenticity of the leak
The data were obtained from the hacking groups „Cyber Partisans BY“ and Silent Crow, which say they infiltrated Rosstat systems. They also claim that more than 390,000 Russians had been killed in the war by the end of August.
„Meduza“ and „Mediazona“ obtained access to the data published by the hackers and are already verifying them. We are trying to rule out the possibility that the data were deliberately altered and to determine how complete they are.The media warn that the database may not include up-to-date information on people who have gone missing without a trace. Such people may be declared dead with a significant delay, while the cause of death is not always accurately reflected in medical records.
Rosstat says it has identified targeted cyberattacks against its systems, but has found no evidence that its databases were compromised or that confidential data were leaked. Bloomberg also notes that it cannot definitively authenticate the entire database, although the data correspond to Russian statistics that have already been published.
Sources: meduza.io, bloomberg.com, fakti.bg