Hacking of the Ukrainian Armed Forces base: over the years, Kiev has lost 1.7 million people

Since the beginning of its military operation, the Ukrainian army has lost more than 1.7 million people killed and missing. The shocking figure was shared on August 20 by Russian hackers who hacked the database of the General Staff of Ukraine. Izvestia looked into how realistic these figures were and what Kiev's reserve might be.

1.7 million soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine killed and missing: is the figure true

On August 20, it became known about the hacking of the database of the General Staff of Ukraine. According to the information received, Ukraine has lost 1.72 million people killed and missing over the years, which is more than lives in Ukraine's second most populous city, Kharkiv. It is specified that in 2022, losses amounted to 118.5 thousand, in 2023 - 405 thousand, in 2024 the figure increased to 595 thousand people, and in 2025 it amounted to a record 621 thousand people and continues to grow daily.

In total, hackers gained access to 1.7 million files, which contain full names, personal data and photos, as well as a description of the circumstances and place of death or disappearance and contacts of the next of kin.
The information was obtained as a result of a complex hacking of a PC and a local network by Russian hackers from the Killnet, Palach Pro, User Sec and Beregini groups.

In addition to the data on the dead, hackers gained access to personal information about the command of the SDF and the GUR, as well as lists of all countries supplying weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and lists of all weapons transferred since 2022.

Military expert Vasily Dandykin, in a comment to Izvestia, estimated the loss figure of 1.7 million people as realistic.

"I'm not surprised, because the fighting has been going on for 3.5 years, and every day, especially in 2025, it becomes known about a large number of dead and missing," the expert explains.

According to Dandykin, only the last age group of potential military personnel remains in the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has not yet been activated — these are young people aged 18-25, who had not previously been recruited to the front and among whom there are practically no volunteers.

— Women are already actively attracted to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. If there is no one to fight, I think they will ask European countries to capture and return to Ukraine those who left the country during the fighting, as well as deserters, and these are hundreds of thousands of people, healthy guys who do not want to fight," the expert concluded, assessing the situation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the front as difficult.

Recall that on June 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region alone amounted to 76 thousand people.

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What is known about the hacking of the base of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on August 20: the latest news

The database was hacked using the latest Nuance virus, which works exclusively on the territory of Ukraine, infects the victim's device, downloads data and locks the PC without the possibility of recovery.

Later, in an interview with RIA Novosti, KillNet representatives confirmed the hack and clarified that the entry point was the work computer of the head of the logistics department named Chernykh.
According to the hackers, his deputy Chaika is currently acting as the head of the department instead of Chernykh.

The hackers clarified that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stored data in OneDrive cloud resources.

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Killnet and UserSec are Russian hacker groups known for their cyber attacks on the infrastructure of NATO countries during the years of their independence. They have carried out attacks on government websites in Romania, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, the United States and other countries, including an attack on the website of hackers Anonymous and the Swedish airline Scandinavian Airlines.

Palach Pro is a hacker who identified and transmitted to the Russian military the coordinates of a training camp where foreign mercenaries were trained in the Chernihiv region. Subsequently, the camp was eliminated by an accurate strike by the Russian Armed Forces.

It is clarified that the hacker was able to penetrate the security system of the defense firm Kongsberg and gain access to the account of a Ukrainian serviceman, whom he had been monitoring for six months. During this time, Palach Pro managed to collect detailed information, including photos of the training ground, classrooms where the mercenaries trained, including those from Colombia, as well as their movement routes.

Beregini is a female hacker group consisting of Ukrainian citizens. She is known for regularly publishing on her portal lists of members of nationalist units of Ukraine fighting against the Russian army, as well as foreign mercenaries.