Ukraine war: A new way of calculating Russian deaths

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Official information on the numbers of dead and injured in the Ukraine war has been in short supply. Little has come from either the Ukrainian or Russian sides, with estimates from western governments and intelligence agencies filling the information void. But some Russian journalists have been documenting war deaths and have come up with a new way of estimating fatalities using probate records. With contributions from David Frenkel, reporter at Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian Service correspondent Olga Ivshina.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading the More or Less podcast,
0:03.2	where you'll weekly guide to the numbers in the news
0:05.7	and in life, an I'm Ben Carter.
0:12.8	On this week's program,
0:14.2	we're returning to the issue of how we calculate casualties
0:17.6	in the Ukraine war.
0:19.6	Official information from either side on deaths
0:22.1	and injuries has been scanned.
0:24.0	In fact, the last time Russia's Defence Ministry
0:27.2	put any figure on deaths was back in September 2022,
0:31.4	when it said 5,900 soldiers were killed in action.
0:36.1	International media have often been reliant
0:38.4	on much higher estimates from Western governments
0:41.1	and intelligence agencies.
0:43.4	But there have also been determined efforts
0:45.4	by some Russian journalists to document Russian war deaths.
0:50.0	The BBC Russian Service has been involved in a project
0:53.0	to monitor sources of information emanating from Russia
0:56.9	to put together a tally of those who have died
0:59.4	in the war in Ukraine.
1:02.4	We've talked about it a couple of times here on More or Less,
1:05.6	with BBC Russian correspondent Olga Ivshina.
	...

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