Сemetery of "Wagners" in Russian Federation increased almost 7 times in 2 months, - NYT
The cemetery, which was used by the PMC "Wagner", has grown rapidly in size over the past few months.
The New York Times writes about it, Censor.NET reports.
The publication notes that a satellite image taken on January 24 shows about 170 burial plots in the area of the cemetery, where PMC mercenaries are known to be buried. This number has increased almost seven times compared to the pictures taken two months ago.
The existence of graves near the main training center of the group in the southeastern village of Molkin was first made public in December by Vitaly Votanovsky, an activist and former officer of the Russian Air Force.
He told the newspaper that he visits cemeteries to document the deaths of Russians during the hostilities in Ukraine. The location of the cemetery might have remained unknown if local residents had not informed him that the area was being used to bury the unclaimed bodies of Wagner's soldiers. Over the course of several visits, he photographed more and more tombstones and uploaded them to his Telegram channel.
He says the dead could be even more. Locals told him that many of the militants had most likely been cremated.
Last September, Prigozhin hinted at the existence of the cemetery during the recruitment of prisoners from the Russian penitentiary system, promising to take care of their remains if they died in battle: "Those who do not know where they want to be buried, we bury them near the chapel of the Wagner PMC ".
Later, the Russian mass media published several videos showing Prigozhin laying flowers on a grave in a cemetery. Also visible are rows of freshly dug graves, each decorated with wreaths in the shape and colors of the Wagner logo.
In another video, Prigozhin visited the Wagner's Chapel, about 12 kilometers from the cemetery. The video shows rows of black walls containing compartments typical of cremated burials. Each compartment has an identification number and a display of combat awards of the deceased.
Journalists have identified a total of 21 walls in the chapel, each containing 42 compartments, suggesting that hundreds of Wagner's fallen soldiers are either buried or at least commemorated in the chapel.
