A video posted on social media, and verified by CNN, exhibits what look like dozens of coffins containing the our bodies of Russian fighters, which had reportedly joined the Wagner personal navy firm (PMC) to serve in Ukraine.
Most coffins exhibited dying certificates, names, the Russian area they have been from and a mixture of numbers and letters, seemingly quantity tags for every of the troopers.
One of many coffins exhibits the dying certificates of Sergey Viktorovich Yumashev, who, in response to native authorities within the Russian Republic of Khakassia, was 39 years previous and died, together with one other man from the identical area, preventing for the Wagner group in Ukraine.
“They served within the ranks of the PMC Wagner, selflessly participated within the liberation of territories from Ukrainian neo-Nazis and the safety of civilians,” the Authorities of Republic of Khakassia stated in a press release Wednesday, the identical day the video surfaced. The assertion repeats Moscow’s bogus justifications for its invasion of Ukraine, which it falsely casts as a “de-Nazification” undertaking required to guard Russian pursuits.
The Khakassia authorities doesn’t make clear whether or not Yumashev volunteered to serve with Wagner or if he had beforehand been convicted and was drafted into Wagner in change for having his sentence commuted.
“The top of Khakassia, Valentin Konovalov, on behalf of himself and on behalf of the federal government of the republic, expresses condolences to the households,” the assertion added. “All essential help might be offered to the households of the fallen troopers.”
CNN beforehand reported Russia, and particularly the Wagner PMC, have been struggling heavy casualties as they tried to make features in jap Ukraine, particularly within the space across the Donetsk metropolis of Bakhmut.
Entrance line experiences and social media movies over the previous few months have confirmed quite a few failed makes an attempt by Russian infantry to interrupt by Ukrainian traces with little to no armored help, taking heavy casualties in an try to overwhelm Kyiv’s forces.
Satellite tv for pc footage from late January, taken by Maxar close to the village of Bakinskaya, within the Krasnodar area of Russia, confirmed a quickly increasing cemetery the place a lot of these killed preventing for Wagner are being buried, in response to founder and financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose go to to the graveyard was reported by Russian state information company RIA Novosti.
Evaluation by the Institute for the Research of Warfare on the time urged the Bakinskaya cemetery seen in footage, in addition to close by secondary location within the city of Goryachy Klyuch, may have held 1,000 useless Wagner troopers. That quantity is believed to have expanded.
