Mediazona reveals first known Russian soldier born in 2007 and killed in Ukraine. He was 15 when the full‑scale invasion started
Photo: Movement of the First / Vkontakte
Alexander Petlinsky, a student of Chelyabinsk Medical College, born on January 31, 2007, died in the war with Ukraine. Mediazona noticed that his death in early March was reported by the local branch of the “Movement of the First,” a youth organisation started by Vladimir Putin in late 2022, similar to the Soviet Pioneer movement.
A short post about Alexander Petlinsky was published on March 19. Almost no details about his death were given, apart from the dates of birth (31 January 2007) and death (9 March 2025) and the fact that he died “in the line of duty during the Special Military Operation” (official Russian euphemism for the war in Ukraine.
Petlinsky is the first person who was born in 2007 on the names list of KIA Russian soldiers, which is maintained by Mediazona, BBC News Russian, and a group of volunteers.
At the same time, Petlinsky is not the youngest serviceman killed in Ukraine: over the last three years, we’ve been able to identify several 18-year-old KIA Russian soldiers. But Petlinsky was born later than the others. He just turned 15 when Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion in Ukraine.
As of today, we know the names of 97,994 Russian soldiers who died in the war. Together with Meduza, we estimate the overall number of losses to be 165,000 as of the end of 2024.
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