Bloomberg: Over 11,000 foreign nationals killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine

Bloomberg, citing confidential data from the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), has reported that more than 11,000 foreign nationals from nearly 100 countries have been killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine

Source: Bloomberg

Details: Bloomberg said the data was obtained by the Belarusian pro-opposition group Cyber Partisans and the Ukrainian hacker operation Silent Crow. It was later shared with Bloomberg and a small group of other news outlets.

The news agency indicates that the information comes from a database containing more than 11 million death certificates, along with accompanying details such as place of birth, citizenship and where people died.

Bloomberg noted that Russia has registered about 400,000 war-related deaths since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost five years ago.

The total includes 11,335 people who were born outside Russia or held foreign citizenship.

Quote: "The deaths were recorded between 24 February 2022 and late August 2026 and explicitly linked to the war, either via coding or text mentioning terms such as 'military operation,' 'shelling' or 'drones'."

Details: Rosstat did not reply to a request for comment.

Bloomberg writes that Rosstat data points to a more than eightfold rise in war-related deaths among foreign nationals, from approximately 630 in 2022 to over 5,500 in 2025.

Background: In early September 2026, Ukraine's General Staff reported that Russian losses in the war against Ukraine had exceeded 1.5 million personnel killed and wounded.

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