At least 92 Russian soldiers were reportedly killed in a Ukrainian strike on a barracks on New Year's Eve, higher than the official death toll given by Moscow.
BBC News Russian reported that another 16 soldiers were still unaccounted for following the strike on Moscow-occupied Makiivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
The news outlet used open-source data to verify the identities of Moscow's troops, most of whom had been called up as part of Vladimir Putin's mobilization call.
The outlet said they had spent two months training in central Russia's Samara region before being deployed to Makiivka on December 26. The Ukrainian attack on January 1 used a HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System).
The Russian Defense Ministry had said that 89 troops had died in the strike in the highest loss officially reported by Moscow since the start of its invasion of Ukraine.
More than 50,000 people have signed a Change.org petition which has called on Russian authorities to publish the names of those killed in the strike.
The petition says the number of dead was underestimated and that "considering the violations under which the mobilization took place, we cannot trust the authorities."
It said Samara governor Dmitry Azarov gave an assurance that the family of each dead soldier would be contacted personally and noted that "mobilized soldiers not professional soldiers were killed."
"Their relatives are not accustomed to living in a state of war. They do not know where to turn and to whom to write. These were ordinary people who, six months ago, could ride with any of us in the same bus.
"We are against dehumanization and normalization of deaths," the petition added.
Russia blamed the soldiers for giving their position away by using cell phones. The strike prompted widespread criticism from Russian military bloggers.
Soldiers, military experts, and even Kremlin-supporting journalists have condemned Russian commanders for housing troops in the same building as a load of ammunition. Funerals for the soldiers killed in Makiivka started on January 7.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
Using open-source information, BBC News Russian along with news outlet Mediazona, have confirmed that at least 12,200 Russian soldiers were killed in the war so far, higher than the official Moscow figure of less than 6,000.
Exact figures are difficult to assess and on Wednesday, Ukraine's Armed Forces said that Russia has lost more than 123,080 troops.
Last week, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told reporters at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany the Russian toll was "significantly well over 100,000," although he did not break this down into those who had been killed and injured.
Update 01/25/23, 6:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.
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Brendan Cole is a Newsweek Senior News Reporter based in London, UK. His focus is Russia and Ukraine, in particular ... Read more
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