In Russia, in the first six months of 2025, against the backdrop of the return from the front in Ukraine of tens of thousands of soldiers, 333,251 crimes were recorded under «serious» and «especially serious» articles. This is a record number for the past 15 years, according to state statistics data, which are still available in the public domain on the website of the Unified Interdepartmental Information and Statistical System.
In the same period last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs registered 301,746 serious and especially serious crimes, meaning their number increased by 10.4% over the year.
Compared to the pre-war year of 2021 (295,696 crimes), the number of serious crimes increased by 12.7%. In the first half of 2019, 251,833 serious and especially serious crimes were recorded. Thus, in just the last six years, the number of such crimes in Russia has increased by a third.
One of the reasons for the sharp increase in crimes may be the return of former criminals from Ukraine, who received pardons for participating in the war.
According to «7×7»* from open sources, in the first 2.5 years of the war alone, participants in «SVO» killed more than 250 people, and several hundred more were injured. And this is only what the media managed to find out.
* Recognized in Russia as an «foreign agent».