The
report also quoted a defense ministry official overseeing medical
assistance as saying that 1,257 Russian troops involved in Chechen
campaign were currently recovering in hospital.
"We
stand by our story and sources," an ITAR-TASS reporter told Agence
France –Presse (AFP) when informed that the Kremlin had denied the
story.
Russia's
second news agency Interfax quickly followed the ITAR-TASS report by
citing defense ministry officials as saying that only 4,572 soldiers had
been killed since the start of the offensive in 1999.
Human
rights groups cast doubt on the defense ministry figure.
"Unlike
the interior ministry, the defense ministry refuses to publish the list
of soldiers who died," said Alexander Cherkasov of the rights group
Memorial, which tracks the Russian campaign in Chechnya.
Report
Sounds Reasonable
In
another development, the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, which has long
disputed the official Russian figure, said it had little doubt that the
ITAR-TASS report was true.
"Our
estimates show that more than 11,000 soldiers were killed in battle or
died of their injuries in the war, and that there are more than 25,000
that have been wounded," the committee's Valentina Melnikova said.
"I
think (the ITAR-TASS) figure sounds reasonable. Probably, they included
those who died in hospital," she said.
Russian
losses in Chechnya have been difficult to verify because the federal
command only cites soldiers who die on the battlefield.
Others
who are taken to hospital outside Chechnya and perish from their wounds
are not registered in official figures compiled by the Kremlin.
Human
rights groups say that up to 20,000 civilians in Chechnya may have died
in the war. There are no government figures for civilian deaths.
"We
continue to estimate that there have been between 10,000 and 20,000
civilians killed, although the figure is probably closer to
10,000," said Memorial's Cherkasov.
