"Cheaper to report as missing": Why Russia does not want to take over the bodies of its soldiers in Ukraine

As a result of the hostilities that Russia started on February 24, a huge number of corpses of Russian soldiers appeared on the territory of Ukraine, which the Russians are in no hurry to pick up and take to Russia, although Ukraine is proposing that. There are different versions of why this happens. One of them is "no corpse, no problem". If relatives cannot prove that their son, husband or father died in the war, the state refuses to pay compensation.

In the liberated Ukrainian settlements of the Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, in addition to the corpses of brutally killed civilians, the bodies of Russian soldiers who were abandoned by their comrades-in-arms after fighting with the Ukrainian army were also found. The Washington Post explained why Russians are so indifferent to the corpses of their comrades.

After the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the hashtag "We are not leaving our own" appeared, which became popular on social networks in Russia. But in reality, this initiative has only proven to be words that sound good.

There is a lot of photo and video evidence of the abandoned bodies of Russian soldiers on the battlefield in Irpen, Moschun and other settlements. However, many more soldiers are returning to Russia with injuries or "assignments". But they don't say what they saw. Russians have access to information via the Internet, but the society does not talk about the incredible number of victims in the Russian armed forces.

The fact is that the Kremlin is hiding news of actual military losses for fear of public outrage. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree declaring all military deaths a state secret. In 2021, Russia introduced criminal liability for "statements that discredit the military."

To date, the Ukrainian side has officially announced the estimated loss of manpower of the Russian army in Ukraine to 19,000 people. NATO estimates that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russians were killed. Russia acknowledges the deaths of only 1,351 soldiers.

Dozens of soldiers from small towns in the Russian hinterland are dying in Ukraine, such as Aleisk in the Altai Krai, but the families of soldiers there are strangely urged "not to gather in one place, not to succumb to provocative information." In Chelyabinsk, relatives are being asked not to spread information about the dead, so that "the enemy could not use them".

Ukrainian authorities tried to return the bodies of 3,000 Russian soldiers on the third day of the war. However, the Russians refused to receive them, saying they did not believe in so many dead because it was not in the official report.

Former head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia Valentina Melnikova, who did a lot for Russian soldiers during the First Chechen War, before February 24, 2022, gave Russian mothers the same advice as in the 1990s: either take your sons from the army and bury them or tell them to flee. According to her, this time none of the mothers listened to the advice.

"After the invasion (February 24), it seemed to me that I was back in 1995. It was a terrible feeling. It was like in Grozny again, when about 2,500 dead soldiers lay on the streets for half a month, half eaten. by animals, "Melnikova said.

According to her, the number of dead mentioned by the Ukrainian side is quite accurate, which is confirmed by personal documents.

"But since our army does not collect the bodies of the dead and does not always take over the wounded, there can be many differences. It is cheaper to report them as missing," Melnikova commented on Russia's lists of the dead.

According to the new law passed in Russia, the families of those killed in the war must be paid about seven million rubles. However, relatives of those killed may have bureaucratic problems if the body disappears.

"No body, no problem" - they like to joke in Russia.

Russian human rights activists doubt that the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine will cause enough outrage in Russian society. Because propaganda constantly claims that "the country is defeating the Nazis". So, in order for there to be serious dissatisfaction, the number of war victims must be increased tenfold.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, residents of Ukrainian villages who survived the Russian occupation now have to collect the numerous corpses of Russian soldiers. After clearing the settlement, the Defense Forces found hundreds of dead aggressors abandoned by their comrades-in-arms. The villagers literally take them out in trailers.

Let us remind you, captured in the ZSU, the occupiers admit that their colleagues threw them on the battlefield without any help. Very often, before that, all ammunition is confiscated from the soldiers of the Russian Federation.