Ethnic Kazakhs in Russia's War Against Ukraine: Volunteers Compile Casualty List

In September, reports emerged regarding the death of two former residents of the West Kazakhstan region in the war in Ukraine. One was not named; the second was Aibek Ramazanov. Legally, they were no longer citizens of Kazakhstan; they had received Russian passports. Approximately three thousand ethnic Kazakhs have died in the war with Ukraine. These figures were given to an Orda journalist by a volunteer who helps compile the list. 

Laying Low

Chance led us to these volunteers. A Telegram channel that publishes information about the losses of the Russian army had posts about three ethnic Kazakhs who died in the war - a 46-year-old volunteer and two 19-year-olds: either conscripts or contractors. The name of the person who published them was also visible. We managed to contact this person.

The man was initially reluctant, not immediately believing that a Kazakhstani journalist was contacting him. 

I have been followed by Russian security forces for over a year now. My page has been blocked several times, so I can't even distribute information on Russian territory, he explained his caution.

The man still agreed to talk, requesting to remain anonymous. We will call him Alikhan. 

After the beginning of the war, he began to come across information about the deaths of Russian ethnic minorities: Buryats, Tuvans, and Kalmyks. He also noticed Kazakhs regularly appearing in such reports.

After some time, I started to keep track of the dead and missing. The list included hundreds of ethnic Kazakhs, and now it contains about 3,000 names, says Alikhan.

Two and a half years after the war began, he is no longer the only one counting these losses. An international group of volunteers does this. They do not operate openly and only study publicly available sources. 

Our fellow countrymen from Kazakhstan, relatives from Russia, and, surprisingly, Russian patriots, as well as Ukrainian friends, began to help me, says Alikhan.

Four Percent

Alikhan periodically posts statistics on Kazakhs who died, including lists of names by region. In July, he wrote about 2,000 dead and about 5,000 injured. Two and a half months later, the number of deaths had grown to almost 3,000. Alikhan says that the list has been increasing significantly in the last year and a half. More mobilized and volunteer soldiers have been sent to the front.

According to the 2020 census, 591 thousand Kazakhs lived in Russia. There are versions that there may be more — from 800 thousand to one and a half million. We have included only official figures, however.

The Astrakhan region is predominantly Kazakh. Approximately 150,000 people from the figure above live there, and this same region leads the volunteers' list. By the end of July, the figure had already exceeded 270. 

According to the BBC, as of September 20, 2024, 582 residents of the Astrakhan region are among the casualties. This means that, according to the volunteers' list, almost half of them are ethnic Kazakhs.

Alikhan has also sent the Orda.kz journalist updated lists for the Volgograd and Chelyabinsk regions. The first one has 99 names, the second – 52. And then there is the Saratov region, where more than 100 people died, the Samara, Orenburg, Omsk, and Kurgan regions along with the Altai and Bashkortostan republics.

Since the beginning of the war, media have been calculating Russia's casualties: BBC, Mediazona, and the Ukrainian project Goryushko. Their figures do not differ much — 71–72 thousand killed.

Based on these numbers, ethnic Kazakhs account for more than four percent.

Last summer, in an interview with Orda.kz, journalist Evgeniya Baltatarova said that Kazakhs make up the majority of Russian national minorities who died in the war in Ukraine. Judging by the information collected by volunteers, the situation has not changed. 

The actual losses may be greater -- not all statistics on casualties become known.

An Orda.kz journalist studied the posts from the last three months on the social networks of Kazakhs in Astrakhan, Saratov, Samara, Volgograd, and Omsk.

There is very little information regarding casualties among ethnic Kazakhs. In the group “Association of Kazakhs of Astrakhan," there is a post from September 14 dedicated to 27-year-old Radmir Zainullin. He died on September 7 in the Kursk region.

Original Author: Igor Ulitin

This is a translated piece, the text has been modified, the content is the same. The original article was posted on 01/10/24. For accuracy, please refer to it.