Sverdlovsk Governor Denis Pasler has signed a decree ordering the creation of a named registry of soldiers from the region who were killed in Ukraine and in other armed conflicts, including the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The Russian business daily Kommersant was among the first to report on the document, signed on June 11.

The registry will be published online. Municipal commissions will be established to compile it, with the work carried out by the Hero of Russia I. O. Rodobolsky Patriotic Education Center, which operates under the regional department of youth policy.

Data will be submitted annually by March 1. For each soldier killed, the registry will include details of his awards and a biographical summary. That information may then serve as the basis for erecting a monument, installing a memorial plaque, naming a geographic feature, or establishing a commemorative date in his honor.

Mediazona, together with BBC News Russian and a team of volunteers, confirmed by June 15 that 6,990 service members from the Sverdlovsk region had been killed in the war in Ukraine.

According to estimates by Meduza and Mediazona, 352,000 Russian soldiers have been killed over the four years of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry last reported an official death toll in September 2022, when it said 5,937 Russian service members had been killed. Explaining why such figures are no longer released, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “the law on state secrets and a special regime for the dissemination of information in the context of the special military operation are in effect.”