As is well known, the Kremlin is trying to cover up many grievances in the country – including the number of Russian soldiers who have actually been killed since the attack on Ukraine. But now a high-ranking minister has made the decision…
To avoid upsetting the population, the Russian Ministry of Defense does not publish figures on dead, wounded or missing soldiers in the war in Ukraine, which has been raging for almost three years now.
The following announcement is therefore all the more surprising: the Russian Ministry of Defense has received 48,000 requests for DNA testing of relatives of missing Russian soldiers, as Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Ziviljowa said during a hearing on state aid to former soldiers and their soldiers. families in the Duma explained. The meeting was captured on video and published by the independent Russian media Astra.
Here is the video to watch:
About the “completely free DNA samples”
In the recordings, the 52-year-old describes that the Ministry of the Interior takes DNA samples “completely free of charge and at its own expense” and records all family members who have contacted them “in a database. As I said, there are 48,000 people in the database.”
The head of the Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, was visibly uncomfortable with this announcement – in the video he chides Tsivilyova for not making this data public. The minister spoke about “very sensitive and confidential” information. “I ask you not to mention these figures anywhere,” Kartopolov continued. “We are not allowed to include these figures anywhere in the final documents.”
Tsiviljowa then reassured: “I did not mention the number of missing people anyway, but rather the number of questions to us.”
According to Astra, journalists have previously received complaints that only family members of officially declared missing soldiers can undergo free DNA testing. However, this practice may differ depending on the Russian region.
How many Russian soldiers died?
Independent Russian news channel Mediazona and BBC News Russian, together with a team of volunteers, used open sources to collect the names of at least 80,973 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since February 2022. However, the reality is likely to far exceed this number; there are fears that there will be a large number of unreported cases.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
