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From Our Own Correspondent: Counting Russia's war dead

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Counting Russia's war dead

01/07/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Counting Russia's war dead

The BBC Russian Service has been tracking the names of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine

Our reporters piece together what the Kremlin won't admit: the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. Plus, stories from the Ukrainian frontline, the Middle East and Japan

Pascale Harter introduces reports from Russia, Ukraine, Jordan and Japan.

What has been the true cost to Russia of its invasion of Ukraine, in terms of lives lost? Moscow says 6,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far in the fighting. But most experts and other governments put the number far higher. Since the start of the war last year, Olga Ivshina has been tracking her country's wartime losses; with a team of volunteers and fellow journalists, they've identified and confirmed the deaths of 25,000 Russian fighters. In some cases, their families didn't even know they had been killed.

Plus, the short-lived mutiny in Moscow last week has prompted questions in Ukraine about what its impact might be on the morale of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, and on the resistance the Ukrainian counter-offensive might meet. But as Andrew Harding discovered, on the frontline itself, Ukrainian soldiers are too pre-occupied with surviving – and tending the wounded – to speculate. 

The highly-addictive drug, Captagon, has been plaguing the Middle East in recent years, and gaining addicts in Europe, Asia and Africa. A BBC investigation has traced the multi-billion dollar trade from the Syria-Jordan border, where Jordanian soldiers battle smugglers, to Lebanon - and found the trail eventually led them to Syria.

Kesennuma, in northeastern Japan, was one of many coastal towns devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 which triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident. Ellie House recently visited the city, and saw lasting signs of the damage done. Yet despite the ever-present risks, some younger people in Japan seem far less prepared for disaster.

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Richard Vadon
Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross

Photo via REUTERS/Anton Vaganov

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