At least 1.5 thousand Russian soldiers were killed during the military operations in the Donbass. This is stated by the head of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia Valentina Melnikova in her commentary for "They are not here". Military losses of Russia in the Donbass. Part 1" article of Ukrainska Pravda.
"Our organization knows that there are a lot of Russians who died in Ukraine – fifteen hundred. At least. We know that Russians continue to be sent to Ukraine", - V.Melnikova said.
"We are not very worried about the figures. Even one dead in such a situation is already bad. There are no exact figures for the number of Russians dead in Ukraine. "This is the 6th war over the history of the committee. And there have never been any data – we can only assess. No way to find out now the number of dead", - V.Melnikova told.
According to her, Russia created a special unit in 2014, through which the documents of Russian military for the issuance of insurance are passed. "There used to be insurance documents. In the case of the war in Ukraine, because everything is illegal – "our comrades" came up with a special unit at the end of 2014, through which the documents of Russian military are passed for the issuance of insurance. Not through military registration and enlistment offices – but through this special unit. This moment when the military registration and enlistment offices knew who and where was killed had also closed at the beginning of 2015. So there is no information", - she told.
Melnikova does not believe any websites where "some pictures and figures of the Russians who died in Ukraine" are being published. "I imagine that this is pure song and dance", - she added. In her opinion, "the only people who can name any more or less accurate data of the losses are military doctors". In particular, she named the Rostov hospital, Volgograd and Novocherkassk.
"We believe that the Russian losses in Ukraine are at least half of the losses of the Ukrainian army. How many Ukrainians have died in the last three years? About three thousand (according to official figures of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine – 2652 dead Ukrainian security officials over three years of the war - ed.) Then fifteen hundred dead from the Russian party is a minimum. So, there is almost 5 thousand wounded, maybe, even more", - Melnikova added.
At the same time, she added that "it is not possible to find out exactly". "Everything will begin later when the war will be over, when the survivors will demand compensation. The families of the dead will also demand something. Then it will be clear what is what", - she considers.