BBC, together with Mediazona and a team of volunteers, identified the names of 226,055 Russian servicemen who died during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More than 200 people on this list are 18-year-old youths.
On February 21, 2022, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an hour-long televised address on his vision of Ukrainian statehood, Alisher Svirin turned 14 years old.
In one of the photos, Alisher Svirin poses in the military uniform of a Soviet soldier from the Great Patriotic War era, holding a Soviet Shpagin submachine gun — a kind of symbol of that war. Such photos are taken of many children in Russia before Victory Day on May 9.
In a 2026 photo, 18-year-old Alisher Svirin in camouflage holds a Kalashnikov assault rifle. This photo is carried by servicemen in a funeral procession. Alisher went to serve under contract and died on May 1, 2026, in the war with Ukraine. On May 28, he was buried on the Alley of Heroes in Pavlovsky Posad.
When exactly he went to the front is unknown, but given his age, he could not have served for more than three months.
This is the first identified Russian serviceman born in 2008 to die on the named list. In total, since the beginning of the major war in Ukraine, no fewer than 200 18-year-old Russian servicemen have died there.
Alisher Svirin served under contract with the 123rd Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade as a machine gunner, according to a brief obituary. Since the beginning of the year, 40 such obituaries with the identical title — "Pavlovsky Posad District Bid Farewell to a Hero" — have already been published on his VK page.
The Moscow Oblast consistently ranks among the leaders in the number of casualties. Confirmed losses among residents of this region amount to 6,084 people.
Bashkortostan remains in first place by a large margin — in the past two weeks alone, the region exceeded the mark of 10,000 servicemen killed in Ukraine.
Tatarstan takes second place — 8,759 people.
These two regions hold the top positions among all subjects of Russia in terms of confirmed casualties, partly thanks to the active work of local volunteers and public organizations that collect such data.
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