The Russian Defense Ministry has decided to classify data on the families of servicemen who died in the war against Ukraine. The corresponding draft has already been published on the government portal of legal information.

This is reported by the BBC Russian Service.

It is reported that the data on the military killed during "special operations" has been a state secret since 2015, but the benefits to their family members are drawn up by officials of the district administrations. It is now proposed to transfer this authority to the military committees, which will make the information about the deceased military even more sensitive.

In particular, the procedure for registering benefits in district administrations has been in effect since 2013 for family members of those killed in Chechnya, Syria and other hotspots. But a special rule is being introduced for relatives of those killed in the war in Ukraine.

The explanatory note on the new powers of the military registration and enlistment offices to issue "family member of a combat veteran" certificates expressly states that this is needed in order to limit the circle of people who have access to information about family members of soldiers who died on the territory of Ukraine.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, some 20,900 Russian servicemen have been killed since the start of the full-scale invasion.