Casualties of the Second Chechen War Estimates of casualties in the Second Chechen War vary wildly , from 25 , 000 to 200 , 000 civilian dead plus 8 , 000 to 40 , 000 Russian military . ( Separate figures for Chechen military fatalities from the second war only are not yet referenced in this article . ) Note : Some of these figures include the First Chechen War of 1994 - 1996 . They usually don ' t include the death toll in Dagestan , Ingushetia , and other neighbouring regions of North Caucasus , where the violence spilled - off from Chechnya . Official figures . The following figures are not confirmed by serious academic sources or researchers , and are difficult to verify . Russian losses by year . October 1 , 1999 – December 31 , 1999 - During the initial invasion in 1999 , 559 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2000 – December 31 , 2000 - During the initial invasion and the following Chechen Insurgency in 2000 , 1 , 410 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2001 – December 31 , 2001 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2001 , 504 Russian soldiers were killed . October 1 , 1999 – October 10 , 2001 - During this period , 106 FSB and GRU operatives were killed . January 1 , 2002 – December 31 , 2002 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2002 , 485 Russian soldiers were killed . October 1 , 1999 – December 23 , 2002 - During the initial invasion and the following Chechen Insurgency from 1999 to 2002 , 1 , 614 - 1 , 822 Interior Ministry troops were killed . January 1 , 2003 – December 31 , 2003 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2003 , 300 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2004 – December 31 , 2004 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2004 , 162 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2005 – December 31 , 2005 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2005 , 107 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2004 – December 30 , 2005 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2004 and 2005 , 279 Interior Ministry troops were killed . July 1 , 2005 - 10 Russian soldiers were killed this day by a bomb in Dagestan . August 20 , 2002 – August 20 , 2006 - During this period , 200 Interior Ministry troops were killed in Dagestan . January 1 , 2006 – December 31 , 2006 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2006 , 57 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2007 – December 31 , 2007 - During the Chechen insurgency in 2007 , 54 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2007 – June 21 , 2007 - During this period , 45 Interior Ministry troops were killed in both Chechnya and Dagestan . January 1 , 2001 – December 31 , 2007 - During the Chechen insurgency , 1 , 072 Chechen police officers were killed . January 1 , 2008 – October 20 , 2008 - During this period , 27 Russian soldiers were killed . January 1 , 2008 – December 31 , 2008 - During 2008 , 226 Interior Ministry troops were killed in the whole of the North Caucasus . Total : 3 , 675 Russian soldiers , 2 , 364 - 2 , 572 Interior Ministry troops , 1 , 072 Chechen police officers and 106 FSB and GRU operatives killed . Chechen militant losses . In May 2000 , Chechen rebels reported on their website that they have lost 1 , 380 men since fighting started with Russia in the breakaway republic . On the Russian side , military officials said they had lost 2 , 004 soldiers . In September 2000 , the Prague Watchdog compiled the widely conflicting list of casualties and enemy losses officially announced by both sides in the first year of the conflict . By December 2002 , 14 , 113 Chechen fighters were reported to have been killed . Between 2003 and 2009 , 2 , 186 militants were reported to have been killed in the whole of the North Caucasus and 6 , 295 were captured . Total : 16 , 299 killed Civilian casualties . The Chechen separatist sources in 2003 cited figures of some 250 , 000 civilians , and up to 50 , 000 Russian servicemen , killed during the 1994 - 2003 period . The rebel side also acknowledged about 5 , 000 separatist combatants killed as of 1999 - 2004 , mostly in the initial phases of the war . In November 2004 , the chairman of Chechnya ' s pro - Moscow State Council , Taus Djabrailov , said over 200 , 000 people have been killed in the Chechen Republic since 1994 , including over 20 , 000 children . In August 2005 , Djabrailov gave a conflicting figure of 160 , 000 killed , mostly Russians . In June 2005 , Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov , a deputy prime minister in the Kremlin - controlled Chechen administration , said about 300 , 000 people have been killed during two wars in Chechnya over the past decade ; he also said that more than 200 , 000 people have gone missing . " Every resident of Chechnya has scores of relatives who have been killed or gone missing " , he said . In September 2006 , Anatoly Kulikov , deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma committee on security said that " In the 12 years of our Russian antiterrorist war in the Chechen Republic , aggregate losses among the federal forces , illegal armed groups and civilians are estimated at about 45 , 000 people . " In November 2006 , self - exiled separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev said that " Putin has already killed more than 250 , 000 innocent Chechens " . Independent estimates . In 2000 , the Russian weekly " Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye " ( Independent Military Review ) compiled an incomplete list of 1 , 176 military servicemen fallen in Chechnya during the first year of conflict . If available the list included name , year and place of birth , rank and military unit , place , date and cause of death . For the period from 1994 to 2003 , estimates ranged from 50 , 000 to 250 , 000 civilians and 10 , 000 to 50 , 000 Russian servicemen killed . Given that almost certainly both sides have tended to exaggerate enemy military casualties while minimizing their own and grossly underestimating its responsibility for civilian losses , the Russian - Chechen Friendship Society set the conservative estimate of death toll in this time period at about 150 , 000 - 200 , 000 civilians , 20 , 000 to 40 , 000 Russian soldiers , and possibly the same amount of Chechen rebels . In February 2003 , the Union of the Committees of Soldiers ' Mothers of Russia , estimated that some 11 , 000 servicemen have been killed , with another 25 , 000 wounded , since 1999 . It also estimated the civilian death toll at about 20 , 000 people . Their estimate for the earlier Chechen war was 14 , 000 dead troops as compared with the official figure of 5 , 500 . According to 2003 Military Balance , the annual report International Institute for Strategic Studies , the British - based think - tank , Russian forces suffered 4 , 749 dead , wounded or missing in hostile and non - hostile incidents in Chechnya between August 2002 and August 2003 . In 2004 , Denis Trifonov of the British strategic - research centre Jane ' s Information Group estimated that the federal forces in Chechnya suffered some 9 , 000 to 11 , 000 combat deaths during the second war ' s most intense phase , from its beginning in late summer 1999 to early 2002 . In 2003 , they lost roughly 3 , 000 dead . In 2004 , the human rights group Memorial estimated the amount of civilian casualties of both wars at " more than 200 , 000 " and the amount of Russian soldiers killed at 20 , 000 to 40 , 000 In 2006 , Alexander Cherkasov of the human rights group Memorial pointed out that the Russian government did not make any attempt to count civilian casualties in the war of 1994 - 96 , nor after 1999 . " Many figures have been quoted , some greatly exaggerated ; a figure of 250 , 000 [ civilian ] dead in the two wars is sometimes repeated , but without there being adequate substantiation of such a number " , Cherkasov said , and concluded : " The total number of peaceful residents of the Chechen Republic who perished during the two wars may have reached 70 , 000 . ( . . . ) [ In the second war ] the total number of civilians killed , including those who disappeared , adds up to between 14 , 800 to 24 , 100 . " However , he admitted that the accuracy of his estimates was not high . In 2007 , Memorial estimated about 15 , 000 Russian soldiers have died in total , while others estimated up to 40 , 000 . According to Amnesty International in 2007 the second war has killed up to 25 , 000 civilians since 1999 ( many in the first months of the conflict ) , while up to another 5 , 000 people are missing . " Many thousands " of people are believed to be buried in unmarked grave s . The Society for Threatened Peoples estimated the civilians casualties of the first war at 80 , 000 and the second war at 50 , 000 , but it ' s unsure when this report was made .