A cellphone digital camera pans slowly throughout the portraits of 55 males, every sporting the costume uniform of Russia’s elite airborne items. Small candles have been positioned by the pictures of the lads, as have sky blue berets and the blue-and-white striped undershirts worn by the paratrooper items who led Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The video of the memorial for the troopers of the 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment is unverified – it was first revealed by Russia’s iStories information outlet, which stated it was submitted by a reader.
However the footage provides weight to a rising consensus that the numbers of Russian casualties – particularly amongst elite items such because the Russian airborne – are far increased than officers have to date admitted.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, stated on Thursday that the nation had “vital losses of troops and it’s an enormous tragedy for us” throughout an interview on Sky News.
The frank admission of the dimensions of Russian losses is uncommon amongst authorities officers, who’ve persistently assured the general public and Vladimir Putin that Russia’s “particular operation” goes in keeping with plan.
In an try at harm management on Friday, Peskov stated he was referring to the official defence ministry numbers of 1,351 troopers killed since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February.
“You and I’ve the identical numbers as these revealed by the defence ministry,” Peskov stated. “This can be a substantial quantity.”
Ukraine has estimated that 18,900 Russian troopers have died because the starting of the warfare, citing its personal restoration of our bodies and intercepted Russian communications. Russia has known as the Ukrainian numbers inflated.
However questions concerning the Russian army’s accounting practices stay, as official statistics might not rely troopers lacking in motion, and critics have accused the Kremlin of deliberately overlaying up the excessive variety of warfare lifeless to forestall discontent at residence.
And rising proof suggests excessive numbers of casualties among the many items that led Russia’s invasion in February, together with paratrooper items thought of to be the “tip of the spear”.
The video of the memorial for the 247th Guards Air Assault Regiment, which is predicated in Stavropol, Russia, confirmed numerous males whose deaths have already been confirmed by public accounts.
One other video from a close-by cemetery that’s utilized by the unit, together with others, confirmed a protracted row of funeral wreaths.
The unit was reported to have fought in southern Ukraine close to the town of Kherson, which has been held by the Russian military since late February. A Ukrainian counter-attack close to Kherson has led to heavy losses for Russian troops there.
Final month, Russia reported the demise of the commander of the regiment, Col Konstantin Zizevsky, certainly one of not less than eight Russian colonels to have been killed in the course of the warfare in Ukraine.
BBC Russian, which has saved a confirmed rely of the variety of Russian losses, has stated that 217 of its 1,083 confirmed Russian warfare lifeless had been officers, from junior lieutenants to generals. Senior Russian officers typically battle alongside their items as a result of selections should be confirmed by higher-ranking personnel.
Of the confirmed deaths within the army, greater than 15% come from Russia’s elite airborne, or VDV, items. The excessive variety of losses amongst these items has additionally been accompanied by studies of desertions.
Based on the opposition Pskovskaya Guberniya newspaper, about 60 Russian paratroopers are going through disciplinary motion after refusing to journey from Belarus, the place many had been dispatched for what they believed had been workout routines, into Ukraine. These studies haven’t been confirmed.
However Russian media have additionally reported on members of two nationwide guards items which have refused to battle in Ukraine. And attorneys say that troopers from greater than 17 cities have requested help to both keep away from being despatched to Ukraine or ask for assist in returning residence.
“They’re all reporting being pressured, going through the specter of felony expenses, being discharged, or having their paperwork withheld,” wrote Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora worldwide human rights group. “For defense from a doable felony investigation, please contact our attorneys.”
