Moscow's Statistics Agency Was Wiped Out By Hackers - Who Posted 'Official' Death Toll From War

Two hacker groups say death records stolen from Russia's federal statistics agency show between 393,881 and 450,100 people killed in the war in Ukraine, a total well above anything Moscow has acknowledged since it stopped publishing military losses in September 2022. The Belarusian Cyber Partisans put the figure at 393,881 as of Aug. 27, while the pro-Ukrainian group Silent Crow says 450,100.1/7 Our @ROSSTAT hack revealed Russia's killed in action. A minimum of 393,881 Russian-side deaths in the war with Ukraine. Source: Rosstat leak, 2022 - Aug 27 2026. Here's how we did it and what it actually means 🧵 pic.twitter.com/yxbFJV7P4N— Belarusian CyberPartisans (@cpartisans) November 8, 2026According to Euronews, the Cyber Partisans counted only deaths where military action or its consequences was the recorded cause, while Silent Crow also added non-combat military deaths, deaths logged as terrorist acts, and people registered in Russia who died in occupied territory or in Ukraine with no cause established. Silent Crow's data, as relayed by Kyiv Post, has annual deaths climbing from about 19,000 in 2022 to more than 182,000 in 2025, mostly among people aged 30 to 49.The Cyber Partisans describe a break-in that took months to set up and ended in destruction. They say they got into the agency's network about six months ago, then "wiped out Rosstat's IT infrastructure" overnight between Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, destroying databases, servers and a 1,800 TB storage system. In their account, the haul included more than 1 TB of classified mortality statistics with causes of death, and "the total volume of document management systems and databases downloaded exceeds 10 TB." Bloomberg reported that the groups claimed access to about 25,000 computers and 23 TB of data.Acording to Rosstat, it detected targeted attacks between Oct. 29 and Nov. 1 and is still restoring systems, but found no evidence that its databases were compromised or that confidential information leaked. "To ensure data security, some parts of the infrastructure remain isolated," the agency said. Its major economic reports are expected to be late through at least Nov. 13.The hacking groups claimed to have left this message on the servers of Russia's statistics agency (via The Record)The only independent check so far is a gap between counts. Mediazona and the BBC's Russian service have confirmed the names of 285,881 Russian military dead as of Nov. 6, and Euronews says that list is incomplete, particularly for recent months. A study by Meduza and Mediazona using the inheritance registry put the toll at about 350,000 by the end of 2025. Meduza and Mediazona say they have access to the leaked data and are checking whether it is genuine and complete, or has been falsified.Euronews also notes limits in the records themselves: cause-of-death entries do not always reflect how a person actually died, and Rosstat's databases do not keep up with people who are missing and only later declared dead. Rosstat stopped publishing annual cause-of-death data in 2024.The leak arrives as Washington tries to bring Moscow and Kyiv to the table. As we reported, the next trilateral talks could lead to a grand deal if Trump has the will, and the Kremlin has said Europe has no seat at the Abu Dhabi talks. Any confirmed figure near 400,000 would be the first count from inside Russia's own records, and it would run well past what the volunteers tallying names have been able to document.