Russian conscripts who died fighting in Ukraine found to have lasted under five months in army on average

Mobilised Russians killed fighting in Ukraine died on average 4-5 months after receiving their call up papers, a joint investigation by IStories and the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) published on Thursday has concluded.

Published to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s partial mobilisation order, the investigation used open source data to compile a list of almost 3,000 Russian draftees who were killed fighting in Ukraine between 21 September 2022 and 1 September 2023.

The investigation found that at least 130 of the draftees in question died less than one month after being mobilised by the Russian military. One-fifth of the draftees died two months after receiving the summons.

The CIT analysts noted that in some cases conscripts were immediately deployed to an area of the frontline nicknamed the “slaughterhouse” near the towns of Svatove and Kreminna in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine in an attempt to fill gaps in Russia’s frontline to avoid the total collapse of Russia’s defences. “The shortest interval between the summons and the grave is just a few days long,” they noted.

More than half of the draftees known to have died were aged between 30 and 45. The youngest was 19, while the oldest was 62.

A year since the mobilisation order was signed, almost every one of Russia’s regions is known to have buried at least one draftee, the investigation noted. The Sverdlovsk region in the Urals alone has buried over 200.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilisation of the Russian military on 21 September 2022, with over 300,000 members of the reserve being called up since then, according to the Defence Ministry.