Shared their calculations
A Facebook user, who often shares Kremlin propaganda, shared thoughts on the latest exchange of fallen Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.
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“The ratio is traditional: 31 Russians – 501 Ukrainians. Previously, it was common for Russia to return 1000 bodies of “Western democracy defenders” to the US-UK-EU-NATO colony 404, while Ukraine returned 30-40 bodies of fallen Russian soldiers. In total, since the beginning of the US-UK-EU-Israel-NATO military aggression against Russia in 2022, Ukraine has handed over 658 bodies of fallen freedom fighters to Russia, and Russia has handed over 20,354 bodies of Western colonizer democracy defenders. The ratio is – 40 to 1 (quotes here and below unedited – editor’s note)”, such calculations were presented by the internet user.
He further reasoned: “Zelensky, NATO, EU, Lithuanian propaganda of lies can relentlessly brainwash useful idiots 24/7, tell stories of how Ukraine is winning, Russia is losing, how Western bloody “democracy” triumphs, being so peaceful, defensive, attractive with its charm, invent, fabricate any Ukrainian victories, Russia’s collapse yesterday, countless sizes of Russian casualties. However, here are the obvious, undeniable facts.”
One of the post’s commentators pointed out that data from Western intelligence and independent analytical centers shows that Russia is losing more soldiers than Ukrainians. The internet user, who shared his calculations, called this propaganda, continuing to adhere to his initial statement.
Although the internet user did not explicitly state it, it is clear from the sequence of thoughts that he is trying to convince that the exchange of soldiers’ bodies proves Russia’s superiority. Allegedly, more bodies of Ukrainian soldiers automatically means greater Ukrainian losses, although in reality, everything is different.
Bodies of soldiers returned
On July 16, it was reported that Ukraine recovered the bodies of 501 fallen soldiers from Russia. The Russian side, according to legislator Shamsail Saraliyev, recovered the bodies of 31 soldiers. Thus, these numbers match those provided by the internet user.
“As part of repatriation efforts, 501 bodies of the deceased have been returned to Ukraine, which, according to the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian soldiers”, the Kyiv Center for Prisoners of War reported.
Investigators and forensic experts will continue to identify the returned remains, the Ukrainian authority stated.
Since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen fighters remains one of the few areas of contact between Moscow and Kyiv. In June, Ukraine recovered the bodies of 522 soldiers, and Kyiv, according to reports, handed over 33 to Moscow. In June 2025, Kyiv recovered the bodies of 6,057 soldiers. According to Russian presidential advisor Vladimir Medinsky, Russia recovered 78 bodies of soldiers.
However, the internet user’s calculations that the number of bodies exchanged by Russia and Ukraine amounts to 40:1 are fabricated.
Ukraine does not comment on how many bodies of Russian soldiers have been returned since the start of the invasion. This information is also not publicly available. Therefore, it is impossible to verify Russia’s claims about the number of bodies received. In this case, one can count the numbers provided in individual reports. These almost always show that Russia indeed returns more bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, but there is a rather simple explanation for this.
Kremlin’s information tactics
Russia exploits fallen soldiers, to distort war casualty figures. The Kremlin wants to create the impression that Ukraine is losing more soldiers than Russia. This tactic is explained in detail by Nastia Kasinchuk, a journalist for the Ukrainian publication “Kyiv Independent”.
She notes that Russia consistently returns more bodies to Ukraine than Ukraine does to Moscow. The Kremlin always draws attention to these figures in its reports and even claims that this is the only objective proof of military losses. However, such claims defy logic. Firstly, Ukraine is defending itself, while Russia is attacking.
“In an offensive war, soldiers advance into enemy territory. When attacking soldiers die, they often fall on ground controlled or recently captured by their side. Meanwhile, defenders fall in territory that the attacker may seize. This means that the Russian side often ends up with both Russian and Ukrainian casualties”, explains N. Kasinchuk.
Therefore, this does not prove which side is losing more soldiers, but only which side is advancing.
Secondly, attackers generally suffer greater losses than defenders. Russia often uses so-called “meat attacks”, where a large number of soldiers are sent into risky offensives, achieving only minimal gains.
Finally, not all bodies returned by Russia are Ukrainian. Kyiv claims that there have been multiple instances where Russia, along with Ukrainian remains, also handed over bodies of its own soldiers. However, the extent of this problem is unclear.
Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko previously stated that Russians, along with Ukrainian bodies, also handed over the bodies of their own soldiers. He provided documents as evidence.
In one instance, a soldier handed over to Ukraine was dressed in a Russian military uniform and had a Russian passport and military ID card.
In the words of the former minister, such a practice could have been used to avoid paying compensation to soldiers’ families and reflected “a negligent attitude towards their own people”.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Moscow that among the transferred remains were found 20 bodies of Russian soldiers, and some of them also had Russian passports. In his words, Russia uses the repatriation of war victims’ bodies as a tool for manipulation, aiming to conceal the scale of its military losses from the public.
I. Klymenko also stated that the identification process is significantly complicated by the circumstances of how Russia returns the bodies. According to him, parts of fallen soldiers’ bodies are handed over in different bags, and sometimes the remains of one person are returned during different exchanges. It is possible that Russia acts this way intentionally, to increase the number of bodies handed over and complicate the identification process.
Who lost more soldiers?
Western intelligence and data from independent analytical centers show that since 2022, Russia has lost more soldiers than Ukraine. The internet user’s calculations are incorrectly linked to the total number of war casualties.
According to early July calculations by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), from February 2022 to June 2026, Russia lost about 1.4 million soldiers (killed, wounded, or missing in action), of whom about 450,000 were killed.
During the same period, Ukraine lost between 525,000 and 625,000 soldiers, of whom between 125,000 and 150,000 were killed.
According to assessments by the British intelligence agency GCHQ, almost half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
According to CSIS analysts, in 2026, Russia is losing more than 30,000 soldiers each month, while recruiting only about 27,000 new ones. This means that, most likely, its losses now exceed the recruitment rate.
Furthermore, in the first quarter of this year, soldier recruitment rates in Russia were 20% lower than in 2025.
CSIS data clearly refutes the internet user’s claims. According to analysts, the ratio of Russian to Ukrainian losses in the first half of 2026 likely increased to almost 8:1 in Ukraine’s favor, compared to a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio for most of the war. This was largely due to Ukraine’s use of drones, including AI-controlled unmanned aerial vehicles, which are part of its aggressive air blockade campaign.
According to CSIS, Russia is suffering so many losses because it deliberately sacrifices its soldiers to exhaust the enemy, its soldiers are poorly trained and act uncoordinated, corruption is rampant in the army, and fighter morale is low. Furthermore, Ukraine’s deep defense (defense-in-depth) strategy has proven effective in killing and wounding Russian soldiers, as well as limiting Russia’s maneuverability.
The independent Russian media outlet “Mediazona,” together with the BBC Russian Service, has compiled a list of fallen Russian soldiers, including their names. It is compiled from publicly available data, so the actual losses are significantly higher. According to the latest data, this number reaches 233,000 soldiers.
CSIS emphasizes that the number of Russian fatalities in Ukraine is more than four times higher than the total number of US fatalities in all wars since World War II combined, and more than nine times higher than the total number of Soviet Union and Russian fatalities in all wars since World War II.
What does the Kremlin seek?
Moscow seeks to destabilize Ukraine from within to break its will to resist. Manipulations about the number of killed, missing, and arrested Ukrainians are also used for this purpose.
Russia has repeatedly spread false news about Ukrainian losses and deaths.
According to the Center for Strategic Communications (SPRAVDI), Russia does not care about the fate of its soldiers, while for Ukraine, these are very painful topics. Therefore, Russian services exploit this. Regarding battlefield losses, Moscow constantly spreads absurdly inflated figures in the information space, although Kyiv and independent international experts reject them.
Earlier, the Kremlin claimed that Kyiv delayed and obstructed the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers. However, Ukraine categorically rejected such claims. Russian media and channels also spread false claims that Russia holds 40,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers.
It was also claimed that Kyiv does not want to recover the bodies of fallen soldiers to avoid paying compensation to their families.
15min verdict: lacks context. As can be inferred from public reports, Ukraine recovers more bodies of soldiers from Russia than Moscow does from Kyiv, although exact figures are not disclosed. However, these figures in no way prove that Ukraine is losing more soldiers. On the contrary, data from analytical centers and intelligence agencies show that Russia is suffering significantly greater losses, and recently these have risen to unprecedented levels.
The publication was prepared by 15min in cooperation with “Meta”, it aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.
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