The pro-Kremlin publication Readovka published a post on its VK page in the evening of April 21 in which, with reference to a closed briefing by the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was claimed that Russian army losses in Ukraine were 13,414 people, with another 7,000 people missing.
It also spoke of 116 dead and more than 100 missing crew members of the sunken Moskva cruiser.
The post was soon removed, but it is available in the web archive.
In the morning of April 22, the publication reported that its account in "VKontakte" was allegedly hacked.
Earlier, a senior NATO military official said that the Alliance estimated that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the four weeks of war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the Russian losses "substantial" in an interview with Sky News the day before, saying it was a "great tragedy."
According to the latest figures from the AFU General Staff, Russia lost more than 21,200 soldiers in the war.
