Nemtsov's final report says 220 Russian troops have died in Ukraine

At least 220 active Russian soldiers have died fighting in Eastern Ukraine, a new report by Russian opposition leaders and journalists alleges.

The 65-page report, entitled "Putin - War", was started by the late opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and finished by his allies after Nemtsov was fatally shot outside the Kremlin in February.

Ilya Yashin, an opposition leader and co-author of the report, suggested on Tuesday that Mr Nemtsov's investigation into the deaths of Russian soldiers in Ukraine may have been the cause of his murder.

"We cannot say that Nemtsov was killed over the preparation of this report, but we cannot rule that out," Mr Yashin said at a presentation of the report's findings. "We believe that Boris Yefimovich's work on this document was dangerous and irritating. We insist that the investigators study this theory."

The report, which was compiled from interviews with soldiers' families and their lawyers, media reports, and notes by Nemtsov, contains the highest estimates yet for the number of the soldiers that have died in Ukraine and the amount of money that Moscow is believed to have spent on the conflict. Russia denies sending troops into the neighbouring country.

According to the authors' calculations, Russian authorities have spent Rbs46bn supporting the Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Ukraine over the past 10 months, and an additional Rb7bn on sending military equipment there.

At least 150 Russian soldiers died in east Ukraine last summer, the report states, and the majority of the deaths occurred during the battle for the railway town Ilovaisk. At least 17 Russian paratroopers from the central Russian city of Ivanovo were among the dead.

An additional 70 Russian soldiers died between January and February this year as rebel forces pushed for control of Debaltseve, another key railroad hub for the rebels.

While several Russian and foreign media outlets have run interviews with Russian soldiers who have admitted to fighting in east Ukraine, it has been difficult to paint a broader picture of how many Russian soldiers have actually fought and died there, as few will go public with their stories.

According to the Nemtsov report, families of Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine were each given 3m roubles in compensation on condition they signed a non-disclosure agreement about their relatives' deaths.

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The authors of the report estimate that the number of fighters on the pro-Russia rebel side in east Ukraine rose from an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 at the beginning of summer 2014, to an estimated 35,000 to 37,0000 at the beginning of this year. They allege that part of the increase was due to a larger number of Russian soldiers taking part in the conflict. They estimate that by the early 2015 8,000 to 10,000 Russian soldiers were fighting on the rebel side, compared to only 3,000 to 5,000 when the fighting began last summer.

On Tuesday afternoon, Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he had not read the report and therefore could not comment on it.

Previous reports by Nemtsov and fellow opposition leaders include investigations into Mr Putin's personal wealth and corruption linked to the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Mr Nemtsov's co-authors said on Tuesday that they planned to do one of their next investigations on Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, whose police commander has been linked to Nemtsov's murder.

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