Vladimir Putin’s relative accidentally leaked secret Kremlin data revealing Russia’s losses in its war in Ukraine.
Ana Tsivilyova, the reported daughter of Putin’s nephew and deputy defense minister, said the Kremlin had received tens of thousands of requests from relatives hoping to track down the missing soldiers.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs takes over [DNA samples] completely free of charge, and it goes into its database for all the brothers who have subscribed to us. I have already said 48,000,” Ms. Tsivilyova said in a video during a meeting she held with lawmakers.
The number of Russians killed in Ukraine is believed to be higher than this, according to Western intelligence. The exact data of the loss of the battlefield is a secret kept in Russia and Ukraine.
In 2023, Putin appointed Mrs. Tsivilyova as the chairman of the state fund for veterans. They promoted him again this year as the deputy minister of defense. His father was Yevgeny Putin, the president’s cousin.
Astra, the Russian opposition Telegram channel that published the article, said the video showed a parliamentary hearing in November.
Shortly after Ms. Tsivilyova released the data, Andrei Kartapolov, the head of Russia’s defense committee, intervened and reminded viewers that the numbers were top secret and should not be released.
“I strongly request you not to use these numbers anywhere. This information is very, very closed. And when we write the final documents, we don’t have to put these numbers anywhere,” he said.
The Russian government considers its death toll a top secret because it does not want ordinary Russians to understand the true cost of their war in Ukraine.
Western intelligence has said that Russia has suffered more than 700,000 dead or seriously injured in the three-year war, surpassing the ten-year Afghan War that the Soviet Union has fought since 1979. The Kremlin has suffered up to 70,000 people in its war in its war. Afghanistan, which was said to have defined the nation.
November was the bloodiest month in Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, with 150,000 casualties each day as Putin mobilizes his forces ahead of a peace deal that Donald Trump would sign after he was sworn in as the next US president. President in January.
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