While Putin continues to deny that Russian soldiers are fighting and dying in Ukraine, a handful of projects are busy working at establishing their identities. On December 22, the group Cargo 200 (military speak for KIA soldiers) published a list of soldiers whose identities have been established by volunteers based on information from open sources. The participants of the group mentioned that it would help to verify the identities of the soldiers there. There are other similar lists available in the internet, published by the independent TV channel Rain, LostIvan, and on the site of the human rights activist Yelena Vasilieva.
Open Russia, a civic movement created by the initiative of once Russia’s richest man and now political activist Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has joined the initiative and is checking the identities of the soldiers in the lists. Right now the list contains 250 verified names of soldiers killed in Ukraine. It is being updated after the necessary checks are in place. The servicemen come from almost all of Russia’s regions. Euromaidan Press has translated the map made by Open Russia (click to enlarge):
The overall numbers of Russian servicemen that have given their lives to fight in Russia’s undeclared war in Ukraine are much larger. Recently, Yelena Vasilieva named it as over 5 500. The overall number of those killed in Putin’s war has reached 11,500.
