Casualties of the Second Chechen War

Estimates of casualties in the Second Chechen War vary wildly, from 25,000 to 200,000 civilian dead plus 8,000 to 40,000 Russian military. (Separate figures for Chechen military fatalities from the second war only are not yet referenced in this article.)

Note: Some of these figures include the First Chechen War of 1994-1996. They usually don't include the death toll in Dagestan, Ingushetia, and other neighbouring regions of North Caucasus, where the violence spilled-off from Chechnya.

Official figures

The following figures are not confirmed by serious academic sources or researchers, and are difficult to verify.

Russian losses by year

October 1, 1999-April 27, 2000 (invasion period) - During the initial invasion 1,328 Russian soldiers and 574 Interior Ministry troops were killed. [http://www.aeronautics.ru/chechnya/042700.htm]

April 28, 2000-August 3, 2000 (mopping up operations) - During the mopping up operations 226 Russian soldiers and 178 Interior Ministry troops were killed. [http://www.aeronautics.ru/chechnya/080700.htm]

August 4, 2000-December 31, 2000 (insurgency phase) - During the Chechen insurgency in 2000, 415 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050330150830.fsye02lj.html] [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html]

August 4, 2000-October 10, 2001 - During this period 444 Interior Ministry troops were killed. [http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6605]

January 1, 2001-December 31, 2001 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2001, 504 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html]

October 10, 2001-December 23, 2002 - During this period 418 Interior Ministry troops were killed. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/news/newsid_2773000/2773997.stm] [http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6605] [http://www.spacewar.com/2005/050330150830.fsye02lj.html] [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html] [http://www.aeronautics.ru/chechnya/080700.htm] [http://www.aeronautics.ru/chechnya/042700.htm]

January 1, 2002-December 31, 2002 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2002, 485 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html]

January 1, 2003-December 31, 2003 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2003, 300 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html]

January 1, 2004-December 31, 2004 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2004, 162 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://gzt.ru/society/2006/02/26/113846.html]

January 1, 2005-December 31, 2005 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2005, 126 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://www.jamestown.org/chechnya_weekly/article.php?articleid=2373490&printthis=1]

January 1, 2006-December 31, 2006 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2006, 57 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://www.siberianlight.net/2007/06/21/military-deaths-rise-and-fall/]

January 1, 2007-May 31, 2007 - During this period 30 Russian soldiers were killed. [http://www.siberianlight.net/2007/06/21/military-deaths-rise-and-fall/]

May, 2000-October, 2007 - During the Chechen insurgency 1,045 Chechen police officers were killed. [ [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/53850 More than 1,000 Chechen police died in anti-terrorist operations -Chechen Interior Ministry] ]

Total: 3,633 Russian soldiers, 1,614 Interior Ministry troops and 1,045 Chechen police officers killed. [http://www.jamestown.org/chechnya_weekly/article.php?articleid=2373490&printthis=1] [ [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/53850 More than 1,000 Chechen police died in anti-terrorist operations -Chechen Interior Ministry] ]

Chechen militant losses

In May 2000, Chechen rebels reported on their website that they have lost 1,380 men since fighting started with Russia in the breakaway republic. On the Russian side, military officials said they had lost 2,004 soldiers. [ [http://www.rferl.org/features/2000/05/F.RU.000525083820.asp Chechnya: Rebels Give Count Of Losses] , RFE/RL, 25 May 2000]

In September 2000, the Prague Watchdog compiled [http://www.watchdog.cz/index.php?show=000000-000005-000003-000001&lang=1 the widely conflicting list] of casualties and enemy losses officially announced by both sides in the first year of the conflict.

By December 2002, 14,113 Chechen fighters were reported to have been killed [http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20021225.aspx]

In 2003 Chechen insurgents acknowledged about 5,000 separatist combatants killed as of 1999-2004, mostly in the initial phases of the war.

In January 2008, Chechnya's Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said that 72 militants were killed in Chechnya in 2007. [ [http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080116/97117813.html Law enforcers killed 72 militants in Chechnya in 2007] , RIA Novosti, 16/01/2008]

Civilian casualties

The Chechen separatist sources in 2003 cited figures of some 250,000 civilians, and up to 50,000 Russian servicemen, killed during the 1994-2003 period. The rebel side also acknowledged about 5,000 separatist combatants killed as of 1999-2004, mostly in the initial phases of the war.

In November 2004, the chairman of Chechnya's pro-Moscow State Council, Taus Djabrailov, said over 200,000 people have been killed in the Chechen Republic since 1994, including over 20,000 children. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20041120124031/http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/11/19/civiliandeath.shtml Over 200,000 Killed in Chechnya Since 1994 — Pro-Moscow Official] ] In August 2005, Djabrailov gave a conflicting figure of 160,000 killed, mostly Russians. [ [http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/16/011.html Death Toll Put at 160,000 in Chechnya] , "The Moscow Times", August 16, 2005]

In June 2005, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, a deputy prime minister in the Kremlin-controlled Chechen administration, said about 300,000 people have been killed during two wars in Chechnya over the past decade; he also said that more than 200,000 people have gone missing. "Every resident of Chechnya has scores of relatives who have been killed or gone missing", he said. [ [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/45015 Official: Chechen wars killed 300,000] ]

In September 2006, Anatoly Kulikov, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma committee on security said that "In the 12 years of our Russian antiterrorist war in the Chechen Republic, aggregate losses among the federal forces, illegal armed groups and civilians are estimated at about 45,000 people." [ [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/49714 Russia's overall losses in Chechnya said to be 45,000 over 12 years] ]

In November 2006, self-exiled separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev said that "Putin has already killed more than 250,000 innocent Chechens". [ [http://www.lifestyleextra.com/ShowStory.asp?story=QO2631422I&news_headline=chechen_leader_says_spy_died_a_hero Chechen leader says spy 'died a hero'] , Life Style Extra, 27th November 2006]

Independent estimates

In 2000, the Russian weekly "Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye" (Independent Military Review) compiled an incomplete list of 1,176 military servicemen fallen in Chechnya during the first year of conflict. If available the list included name, year and place of birth, rank and military unit, place, date and cause of death. [ [http://nvo.ng.ru/wars/2000-08-11/8_least.html Список военнослужащих, погибших в Дагестане и Чечне начиная с августа 1999 года] , "Nezavisimoye Voennoye Obozreniye", 2000-08-11]

For the period from 1994 to 2003, estimates ranged from 50,000 to 250,000 civilians and 10,000 to 50,000 Russian servicemen killed. Given that almost certainly both sides have tended to exaggerate enemy military casualties while minimizing their own and grossly underestimating its responsibility for civilian losses, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society set the conservative estimate of death toll in this time period at about 150,000 - 200,000 civilians, 20,000 to 40,000 Russian soldiers, and possibly the same amount of Chechen rebels. [http://web.archive.org/web/20070821154629/http://www.hrvc.net/htmls/references.htm Civil and military casualties of the wars in Chechnya] Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, 2003]

In February 2003, the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, estimated that some 11,000 servicemen have been killed, with another 25,000 wounded, since 1999. It also estimated the civilian death toll at about 20,000 people. [http://www.cdi.org/russia/245-14.cfm CASUALTY FIGURES] , Center for Defense Information, February 20, 2003] Their estimate for the earlier Chechen war was 14,000 dead troops as compared with the official figure of 5,500.

According to 2003 Military Balance, the annual report International Institute for Strategic Studies, the British-based think-tank, Russian forces suffered 4,749 dead in Chechnya between August 2002 and August 2003. [ [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1317003,00.html CHECHNYA: Independence, Islam and Bloodshed] , "Deutsche Welle"]

In 2004, the British strategic-research centre Jane's Information Group estimated that the federal forces in Chechnya suffered some 9,000 to 11,000 combat deaths during the second war's most intense phase, from its beginning in late summer 1999 to early 2002. In 2003, they lost roughly 3,000 dead. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=396&issue_id=2913&article_id=23561 RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES SAID TO BE UNDERREPORTING COMBAT DEATHS] , The Jamestown Foundation, February 25, 2004]

In 2004, the human rights group Memorial estimated the amount of civilian casualties of both wars at "more than 200,000" and the amount of Russian soldiers killed at 20,000 to 40,000 [http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/5palest.shtml From Chechenization to Palestinization - The Human Rights Situation in Chechnya and North Caucasus in 2004]

In 2006, Alexander Cherkasov of the human rights group Memorial pointed out that the Russian government did not make any attempt to count civilian casualties in the war of 1994-96, nor after 1999. "Many figures have been quoted, some greatly exaggerated; a figure of 250,000 [civilian] dead in the two wars is sometimes repeated, but without there being adequate substantiation of such a number", Cherkasov said, and concluded: "The total number of peaceful residents of the Chechen Republic who perished during the two wars may have reached 70,000. (...) [In the second war] the total number of civilians killed, including those who disappeared, adds up to between 14,800 to 24,100." However, he admitted that the accuracy of his estimates was not high.

In 2007, Memorial estimated about 15,000 Russian soldiers have died in total, while others estimated up to 40,000. [http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/RU_WAR.htm?v=in_detail FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM RUSSIA] , Reuters, 11-04-2007]

According to Amnesty International in 2007 the second war has killed up to 25,000 civilians since 1999 (many in the first months of the conflict), while up to another 5,000 people are missing. "Many thousands" of people are believed to be buried in unmarked graves. [ [http://www.jamestown.org/chechnya_weekly/article.php?articleid=2373419 Amnesty International Issues Reports on Disappearances] , The Jamestown Foundation, May 24, 2007] [cite web |url=http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR460152007 |title=Russian Federation What justice for Chechnya’s disappeared]

The Society for Threatened Peoples estimated the civilians casualties of the first war at 80,000 and the second war at 50,000, but it's unsure when this report was made. [ [http://www.hrvc.net/htmls/references.htm Civil and military casualties of the wars in Chechnya] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.watchdog.cz/index.php?show=000000-000005-000003-000001&lang=1 Casualties officially announced since the beginning of the conflict] September 1999-2000