A pro-Kremlin tabloid in Russia, owned by an oligarch, published and then deleted on Monday a report citing Russia’s Defense Ministry that said its troop losses in Ukraine were approaching 10,000 killed in action.
Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian daily tabloid, reported on Monday that 9,861 Russian combat forces had been killed and 16,153 have been injured during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, citing Russia’s Defense Ministry. The article was quickly removed from the tabloid’s website and republished with the alleged death toll and other information removed.
An editor’s note was later published by Komsomolskaya Pravda claiming that the tabloid’s website had been “hacked” and that “fake” information was “immediately removed.”
“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refutes the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about the alleged large-scale losses of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces lost 9,861 people killed, 16,153 people were injured,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda article originally said in a paragraph responding to claims by Ukrainian officials that 14,700 Russian military personnel had been killed in the war.
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A “message from the editors of KP.RU” was later posted on a separate page on the website explaining why the article was taken down.
“On March 21, access to the administrator interface was hacked on the website of Komsomolskaya Pravda and a fake stuffing was made into a publication about the situation around the special operation in Ukraine,” the message said. “Inaccurate information was immediately removed.”
Komsomolskaya Pravda also deleted portions of the article that made reference to the reported death of Russian Black Sea Fleet Deputy Cmdr. Andrei Paly and the reported destruction of a Ukrainian foreign mercenary training center in Zhytomyr.
Komsomolskaya Pravda is owned by Russian oligarch Grigory Berezkin, who is chairman of the ESN Group and is reportedly closely associated with Russia’s state railway company. Berezkin also owns the free daily and weekly Metro newspaper. Berezkin’s papers have the highest average readership in Russia, at about 6 million, according to the national security think tank CNA.
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The last tally of Russians killed in action in Ukraine was released by the Kremlin on March 2. According to the Russian government, only 498 of its soldiers had been killed at that point in the war.
The United States estimates that more than 7,000 Russian troops have been killed over the course of the invasion, and the United Nations estimates that at least 925 civilians have died.
