Russia’s ‘Alternative’ Commemorations of War in Ukraine’s Third Anniversary

The Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an independent investigative organization, founded by a Russian opposition activist Ruslan Leviev, published a summary of publications that had “prepared special materials and projects” to mark the third anniversary of the Russia’s so-called “special military operation (SVO)” on Wednesday. This cast a light on the different take on the war to that pushed by the Kremlin by independent commentators.

Meduza and Mediazona

The two independent Russian news sites published an assessment of the Russian armed forces’ losses since February 2022 based on a list of names of the dead and a register of inheritance cases. Their conclusion was that there were 165,000 confirmed dead. Mediazona also launched its “Russia 200” project - a publicly available list of the names of dead soldiers – 200 is the code for someone killed in action (KIA).

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The independent Russian news outlet has rolled out its “Project Charon” - a database of Russian troops KIA or missing in action (MIA) using a neural network to search public records on soldiers participating in the war reported as KIA or MIA. It said that based on that it had flagged 103,000 KIA/MIA which it said was a low estimate.

Люди Байкала (People of Baikal)

This group published an analysis of troops from the Irkutsk and Buryatia regions killed since 2022. It identified by name more than 4,500 KIA which represented almost 2 percent of the men of working age. It also said that the average life expectancy on the front line for those serving with the Wagner group or assigned to Storm-Z assault units was around three months.

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7x7 - Horizontal Russia

Journalists from the 7x7 publication looked at a different aspect – it calculated the number of murders committed by those who had returned from the SVO. It said that that at least 240 Russians had been killed by around 225 homicidal attacks. It also said the figure was probably higher as they had not included cases that were still under consideration, those where deaths were caused by incidents not legally classed as murder and said they had identified several cases where the outcome had not been published or removed from public records.

Verstka

This independent news outlet considered all cases of violence committed by returning servicemen. It identified more than 750 cases of violence, including murder, of which around 380 had died. Of those responsible around 400 were former convicts released to fight. Verstka commented that in nearly every case participation by the perpetrator in the SVO led to a lenient sentence.

OVD-Info

The independent human rights defense group looked at cases of Russian wartime repressions, detailing more than 1,200 prosecutions for anti-war “offenses” over the previous three years. It said that in 2024 while the number of criminal cases in Russia had decreased, the sentences for them had become increasingly harsher. It said that the ages of those prosecuted had increased with more than two thirds being aged 50 or over and there had been an upsurge in prosecutions of the wives of mobilized men who demand the return of their husbands.

The cover of the Avtozak LIVE report on the “Three Years of War” political persecution.

Avtozak LIVE

This human rights organization produced a large report on how political persecution, a perennial problem in Putin’s Russia, had changed during the war which included a list of almost 3,600 individuals who have been deprived of their freedom. The list included not only Russian “political prisoners,” but also Ukrainian civilian hostages, and prisoners of war who are being illegally held despite internationally agree legislation such as the Geneva conventions.

Не норма (Not Normal)

The project set up to try to combat wartime propaganda aimed at Russia’s children published a small selection of news about how schools across the country “celebrated” the day the war began. These festivities included school assemblies, rallies, meetings with “participants of the SVO,” documentary films, exhibitions, concerts and visits to lay flowers on servicemen’s graves – all activities designed to fill children with “feelings of pride and respect for their country.”