Russia | A sea of ​​crosses that testifies to the cost of war

(Bakinskaya, Russia) Under insistent snow, four narrow coffins recently extricated from the back of a truck rest in front of an Orthodox priest. Looking solemn, three gravediggers in tattered jackets watch him pronounce the last rites, hands crossed. An excavator is parked nearby, ready to dig more graves.

“Lord, have mercy,” chants the priest as he blesses the bodies of fallen Russian soldiers with incense, his cassock battered by an icy wind.

After these bodies are lowered, four more dead soldiers in purple-covered coffins receive the last rites.

It is the final resting place of many men who lost their lives fighting for the private mercenary force known as the Wagner Group, which is leading the Russian military effort in the months-long battle for the Ukrainian town of Bakhmout.

Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, a tycoon who enjoys a close relationship with President Vladimir Putin, praised its strength as “probably the most experienced army in the world today”.

But the rapidly growing cemetery in Bakinskaya, a town near the Black Sea, is proof that its mercenary army – which includes many poorly trained former inmates – is suffering huge battlefield casualties.

On a recent weekday, the remains of nine men were interred in this relatively new cemetery, created for Wagner recruits who had indicated they preferred to be buried there.

Late last year activists were made aware of increased activity at the cemetery, which is adjacent to a cemetery used by the local community. At the time, it contained around 50 graves. Today there are around 300, and those who observe the cemetery claim that between 4 and 8 soldiers are buried per day, on average; local media estimates are even higher, reporting 16 graves per day.

Almost all of the graves, covered in fresh snow, are identical, although sometimes a thin Muslim headstone sits at the head of the grave, instead of an Orthodox cross. Each is adorned with a wreath of plastic flowers in the style of the Wagner logo – red, yellow and black with a gold star in the middle. Only one grave, that of Andreï V. Orlov, who died on December 15 at the age of 28, included a photo and an additional wreath of flowers.

Dramatic increase

Burials here went little-noticed until late December, when an anti-war activist, Vitali V. Wotanovski, began posting images of the cemetery, including the names and birthdates of the dead, on his Telegram channel. . Ten days later, on New Year’s Day, pictures of Prigozhin laying flowers on the graves appeared.

Casualties began to mount, according to Wotanovski, as the battle for Bakhmout and the nearby village of Soledar intensified.

“Since November, the death toll has risen dramatically,” Wotanovski, 51, said in an interview at his home in nearby Krasnodar. In the past, he counted about four funerals a day, but he noted that one day recently there were 11.

Wotanovski, who has spent 20 days in detention since the start of the invasion for his anti-war activities, has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the cemeteries in his region. He collects information from residents, keeps a register of war dead buried in the area and posts photos of the headstones on his Telegram channel. He said informing the public about the names and identities of the fallen was his only way of protesting and trying to change public opinion.

“It’s the only normal and legal way to tell people that war is death, that it’s wrong, so that they sort of think about it in their heads,” said Wotanovski, a veteran of the Russian army who worked for years for the army as a radio engineer.

According to an analysis of New York Timesmany of the Wagner Group fighters buried at Bakinskaya had been convicted of crimes.

Western intelligence agencies, the Ukrainian government and a prisoners’ rights group, Russia Behind Bars, estimate that around 40,000 inmates have swelled Russian forces since July – around 10% of the country’s prison population.

Ukrainian officials claimed that nearly 30,000 of them deserted or were killed or injured, but this figure could not be independently verified.

Some observers have speculated that the graveyard is a public relations ploy by Prigozhin, who increasingly seeks to take credit for capturing Ukrainian territory and is thought to harbor political ambitions.

“Contrary to the general tendency in Russia, which is to try to minimize the human losses, Prigojine tries to promote military heroism and the sacrifice” of its soldiers, said Samuel Ramani, associate researcher at RUSI, think tank on defense in Britain, which is studying the group.

Not far from the cemetery, a 20-minute drive along the area’s highway, is a complex including a chapel erected in memory of members of the Wagner band who died in action. On a recent visit, the gates around the compound were completely closed. Videos of Prigozhin visiting the site showed walls containing the cremated remains of an unknown number of fighters.

A 10-minute drive away is Molkino Base, which observers say has been a training camp for Wagner Group soldiers since 2015. According to Russian media, the Defense Ministry has spent at least $1 billion rubles (13.6 million US) to develop the training center.

Krasnodar region, which has the third-largest population of Russia’s 85 regions, is the region with the most cases of ‘discrediting the Russian military’, a common accusation against anyone who opposes the war . A repeat offense can lead to up to 10 years in prison.

In a case that made headlines and alarmed local anti-war activists, a married man and woman discussed their opposition to the invasion with each other while having dinner at a restaurant. The owner of the establishment called the police, who accused the husband and wife of petty hooliganism. The woman is also accused of “discrediting” the Russian army.

Despite this intimidating climate, Viktor V. Chirikov, a close friend of Wotanovski, also an army veteran, is convinced that the simple act of posting messages about the dead will eventually lead not only to the end of the war, but also to the end of the war. collapse of the system built by Putin.

“Do you know why the Russian Empire fell? he says in Wotanovski’s kitchen. “Because of the number of coffins returning from the fronts of the First World War to the villages where the dead lived. »

“It’s one thing to watch on television or on the computer: ‘Oh, they fight there, they kill there’, like in computer shooters,” he added. But people are starting to ask, “Why are we doing this?” when they see the coffin or the grave of their school friends. »

Both men said they would continue to count the dead as the casualties mount. At the Bakinskaya cemetery, the plot appears large enough to accommodate many more bodies.

“They’re going to need even more space,” Wotanovski said.