The video of the monument to the soldiers of the 247th Airborne Regiment of the Guards has not been verified – it was first published by the Russian news agency iStories, which said it was submitted by a reader. But the video adds weight to a growing consensus that the number of Russian casualties – especially among select units such as the Russian air carrier – is much higher than officials have so far acknowledged. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said on Thursday that the country had “significant troop losses and is a huge tragedy for us” during an interview with Sky News. Honest admission of the scale of Russia’s losses is rare among government officials, who have consistently assured the public and Vladimir Putin that Russia’s “special operation” is going according to plan. In an effort to control the damage on Friday, Peshkov said he was referring to official Defense Ministry figures for the 1,351 soldiers killed since Russia launched its offensive on February 24. “You and I have the same numbers as those published by the Ministry of Defense,” Peshkov said. “This is a significant number.” Ukraine has estimated that 18,900 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war, citing its own retrieval of corpses and interception of Russian communications. Russia has described the Ukrainian numbers as inflated. However, questions about the Russian military’s accounting practices remain, as official statistics may not count missing soldiers, and critics have accused the Kremlin of deliberately hiding large numbers of war dead to prevent domestic unrest. And growing evidence suggests high numbers of casualties among units that led to the Russian invasion in February, including paratroopers that are considered “spearheads.” The video of the monument to the 247th Air Raid Regiment of the Guards, based in Stavropol, Russia, showed a number of men whose deaths have already been confirmed through public accounts. Another video from a nearby cemetery used by the unit, along with others, showed a large set of funeral wreaths. The unit reportedly fought in southern Ukraine near the city of Kherson, which has been held by the Russian army since late February. A Ukrainian counterattack near Kherson resulted in heavy casualties for Russian troops there. Last month, Russia reported the death of the commander of the regiment, Colonel Konstantin Zizevsky, one of at least eight Russian colonels killed during the war in Ukraine. BBC Russian, which has confirmed the number of Russian casualties, said 217 of the 1,083 confirmed Russian war dead were officers, from junior lieutenants to generals. Senior Russian officers often fight alongside their units, because decisions must be confirmed by high-ranking personnel. Of the confirmed deaths in the army, more than 15% come from elite Russian airborne units or VDVs. The high number of casualties among these units was also accompanied by reports of shortages. According to the opposition newspaper Pskovskaya Guberniya, about 60 Russian paratroopers are facing disciplinary action after refusing to travel from Belarus, where many were sent for exercises, as they believed, to Ukraine. These reports have not been confirmed. However, Russian media also reported on members of two National Guard units who refused to fight in Ukraine. And lawyers say soldiers from more than 17 cities have sought help either to avoid being sent to Ukraine or to seek help to return home. “Everyone says they are being pressured, threatened, prosecuted, fired or detained,” wrote Pavel Tsikov, head of the international human rights group Agora. “For protection against possible criminal investigation, contact our lawyers.”
