Belarusian Hackers Claim Rosstat Breach Reveals 412,576 Russian War Dead
Hacker groups claiming to have breached Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) published death certificate data indicating that at least 412,576 Russian servicemen have died since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine through August of this year, Sega reported. The toll could reach 450,100 when additional categories of records are included, according to the Ukrainian outlet Militarny, which analyzed the leaked material.
The claim comes from the Belarusian hacktivist collective Cyberpartisans and the group Silent Crow, which said they accessed Rosstat’s central server and roughly 25,000 computers, exfiltrating about 23 terabytes of information. The groups posted the data on a portal called RosstatLeaks.
Rosstat Confirms Attack but Denies Data Theft
Rosstat acknowledged to RBC that its websites were hit by a coordinated cyberattack between October 29 and 31, and messages from both hacker groups appeared on the agency’s main site and regional portals overnight on November 1, Kaldata.com reported. The agency denied that protected data leaked, stating that security mechanisms responded in time and no compromise of databases was detected.
SecurityLab noted that the hackers have not yet provided sufficient public technical evidence to confirm the claimed scale of the intrusion, News.bg reported. Journalists have verified parts of the published information, but the authenticity of the full dataset remains unconfirmed.
How the 412,576 Figure Breaks Down
The number is not a single count but a sum of three categories of death records, according to Militarny’s analysis published by Sega. It includes 356,056 records with the ICD-10 code Y36 for victims in military operations, 38,229 records citing “consequences of combat operations” or similar wording, and 18,291 records for death in military operations without a cause code.
The portal warns that military death codes can also cover civilians, and that delays between death and registration make the most recent months incomplete. The analysis excludes missing persons and foreign mercenaries. A broader count identified 440,982 records linked to dead servicemen, to which other categories were added.
Half the Deaths in Donetsk; Most Victims from Bashkiria and the Volga Region
According to the leaked data as described by Militarny, half of the recorded deaths occurred in the Donetsk region. The largest share of the dead were people born in Bashkiria and along the Volga River basin.
News.bg reported that among the allegedly stolen materials were internal statistical data on mortality and causes of death in Russia, restricted documents, and figures on the population of occupied Ukrainian territories, including a document estimating the population of occupied Donetsk at about 2.89 million as of January 1, 2025, down from 4 million before the occupation.
How the Leaked Figure Compares to Other Estimates
The leaked figure stands well above the 285,881 Russian servicemen confirmed by name by the independent outlets Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service with volunteers, as cited by Sega. That lower count covers only identified cases.
It remains far below the 1,594,830 “Russian military losses” claimed by Ukraine’s General Staff since February 2022, a figure that includes wounded and is not directly comparable to death certificate data. Russian economist Yanis Kluge, a specialist on the Russian economy, wrote that the total reached 450,100 by the end of August, or roughly 100,000 per year, aligning with other independent estimates.
Did you know? Rosstat stopped publishing annual cause-of-death statistics for 2024, and other data that could help assess the war’s consequences disappeared from official reports. Before the full-scale invasion, the agency had recorded such deaths in single digits.
Why Russia’s Official Silence Matters
Since 2024, Rosstat has not published the consolidated statistics on causes of death in Russia, and the publication of certain statistical data for occupied Ukrainian territories has been suspended until April 2027, Moscow Times noted, as reported by News.bg. Independent estimates until now have relied mainly on open sources.
Clarifying Rosstat’s Response to Hacking Allegations
Did Rosstat confirm that hackers stole the death data?
No. Rosstat confirmed to RBC that its sites were attacked between October 29 and 31, but the agency denied any leak of protected data. The hackers claim 23 terabytes were stolen, though independent verification of the full dataset is still lacking.
How does 412,576 compare to confirmed death tolls?
Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service have confirmed by name 285,881 Russian servicemen killed. The leaked figure of at least 412,576 is significantly higher, while Ukraine’s General Staff claims 1,594,830 total military losses including wounded.
What does ICD-10 code Y36 mean?
Y36 is the international classification code for “victims in military operations.” The leaked analysis counted 356,056 records carrying this code, plus two other categories of military death records.
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