Over 72,000 russian casualties in Ukraine identified by Poter.NET online platform

The Poter.NET (No Losses) online platform was launched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2022. As of now the project has collected information on 72,012 dead russian soldiers, as well as representatives of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics and collaborators who had remained in the territory uncontrolled by Ukraine or the occupied territories.

This was discussed during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

In order to counter narratives of russian propaganda and disinformation, the project collects, processes and analyzes information to identify dead russian servicemen and representatives of other russian illegal armed formations involved in the war in Ukraine

“Back at the beginning of the large-scale invasion, we realized that there was an abundance of information about the dead russians, and we began organizing this information initially with the help of the National Police of Ukraine, in particular with the information and analytical support, criminal analysis, and cyber police departments. And then, we realized how significant this information is, especially after September 2022, when the russian Defense Ministry claimed that their military losses amounted to about 5,000. However, at the same time we saw and understood the reports of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stating that russia’s losses were at least ten times larger than what the russian authorities claimed. That is why we got the idea that it is necessary to accumulate such information,” Leonid Tymchenko, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs noted during the presentation of the project.

Sources used for information gathering include russian-language social networks, groups in social networks and in Telegram channels. Information enters the database only after it passes several stages of verification. At least two sources of information are required for each case. In addition, the information in the database must be supported by associated screenshots.

In addition to daily updated statistics, the database includes information about the gender distribution among the russian military casualties in Ukraine. The platform offers a highly flexible search function allowing users to search by name, surname, etc. In addition, the platform provides statistics on the ranks of the deceased soldiers.

The Poter.NET project is a collaborative effort involving employees from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police and representatives of higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in particular, the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, and Odesa State University of Internal Affairs. In total, more than 50 cadets and employees of the National Police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are involved in the information gathering.

“The project was primarily created to provide an accurate assessment of the situation on the enemy side. We understand that the figure, which is updated daily by our General Staff, exceeds 400,000. As of today, we have been able to identify more than 72,000 from open sources. We have no doubt that the General Staff current figure of more than 400,000 dead russian soldiers is accurate. However, we understand that a large number of bodies remain in the field, on the demarcation line. Moreover, we understand that there is a fairly widespread practice for russian commanders to leave the bodies of their fallen soldiers lying on Ukrainian soil,” Leonid Tymchenko emphasized.

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news