Russia says little about its soldiers dying, so an open-source team is trying to keep track

For months, Vitaly Votanovsky has been walking  through rows of freshly dug graves in Russia's southern western Krasnodar region, filming and photographing evidence of the country's mounting military deaths, which he accuses the Kremlin of trying to conceal. 

His images, which Votanovsky has posted to his Telegram channel, show some cemeteries lined with plots honouring what Russia's calls its fallen heroes.

Many mounds are adorned with large bouquets of flowers, coloured portraits of soldiers and regimental flags. 

Others are only marked by a wooden cross sticking out of the dirt, without even a name on it. 

What angers Votanovsky the most are the graves where the soldiers killed were only 19 or 20, barely older than his daughter. 

"They are healthy men of childbearing age who could benefit the state, build houses, factories and raise children."

"They end up lying in the ground now."

The former air force officer-turned-activist is part of a small network of volunteers and journalists working to document Russia's war dead by visiting cemeteries, talking to family members and scanning social media and news publications for obituaries. 

They are trying to quantify a death toll that has been estimated by Ukrainian and Western officials but Russia's has rarely acknowledged. 

In September, as it was announcing "partial mobilization," the Russian Defence Ministry said that just under 6,000 soldiers had been killed since Feb 24, 2022. 

In December, an adviser to Ukraine's president, estimated that as many as 13,000 of its troops died. 

Russia hasn't provided a more recent update, but last month, U.K. officials estimated that as many as 200,000 Russian fighters have been injured or killed in Ukraine since the war began. 

Even before the war, Russia had classified military deaths as state secrets.

After it launched its full invasion against Ukraine last year, it enacted increasingly punishing censorship laws.