Occupied Donetsk Oblast sees highest Russian soldiers suicide rate, Ukrainian official reports

The occupied territory of Luhansk Oblast has one of the highest suicide rates among Russian soldiers, second only to the so-called occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast, according to Artem Lysohor, head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration.

Since 2014, significant parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts have been under Russian occupation. Moscow established puppet regimes—the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic—which serve as strategic bases for military operations aimed at destabilizing Ukraine and consolidating control over disputed territories.

“The suicide rate among Russian soldiers in occupied Luhansk is among the highest, surpassed only by the neighboring so-called Donetsk People’s Republic,” Lysohor said.

In 2024, suicides among Russian troops in occupied Luhansk occurred approximately every two days. The frequency increased significantly toward the end of the year.

“By November, these incidents were occurring almost daily, and in December, the rate rose to two suicides every three days,” Lysohor reported.

Earlier, partisans from the Atesh Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar movement said Russia dispatched a commission to the 1196th Motorized Rifle Regiment, stationed in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast, in response to a rise in suicides and sabotage targeting watercraft by its soldiers.

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