Kostroma is not a bad place to explore the impact of the Ukraine war on Russia. For the city is home to a famous regiment that bears its name and has been at the forefront of all the major battles in the Kremlin’s campaign against its neighbors.
The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment, often referred to as the Kostroma Airborne Regiment, has been the subject of an investigation by JEE News Newsnight since shortly after the attack last February. They reveal the price paid by the regiment and its home community. We had confirmed 39 deaths by April last year, 62 by the end of July and now the number has reached 94.
Much of the work involved in compiling this list involved social media accounts on V’Kontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, and local media reporting. We can then cross-reference this with satellite and Google Street View imagery.
A video discovered on V’Kontakte showed the graves of soldiers in a cemetery northeast of Kostroma. The graves shown in the videos match the names of the soldiers we collected.
331 The actual death toll is probably much higher. Some soldiers are from towns outside of Kostroma, making it more difficult to find information about them. Several soldiers are reported missing – some of them may be among the dead.
When one considers them seriously wounded or captured, it is reasonable to assume that several hundred soldiers of the regiment have been lost in the war in Ukraine.
