The first Russian female troop has died in Ukraine four and a half months into Russia’s war against its pro-Western neighbour, as per local media reports.
According to reports, Anastasia Savitskaya was a corporal from the southwestern Russian city of Volgograd. It was not clear where in Ukraine, or under what circumstances, she had died.
“[Savitsakaya] became the first female military personnel to die,” Alexander Strukov, the head of Volgograd’s council of veterans, was quoted as stated by local media reports.
The outlet did not reveal Savitskaya’s age at the time of her death.
Russia’s Volgograd region has reported one of the highest regional death tolls in the Ukraine war, with a total of 136 soldiers killed in combat, according to the independent Russian media outlet iStories.
The Russian government hasn’t updated its official death toll in Ukraine since March, when it reported 1,351 soldiers killed.
iStories, which keeps an independent tally of military fatalities in Ukraine, has confirmed the deaths of nearly 4,500 Russians since the start of the Russian invasion in February.
An estimated 40,000 women — less than 1% of 900,000 soldiers — were serving in the Russian Armed Forces last year.