Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet, has received pictures of new graves in an Ulyanovsk cemetery. 42 tombstones of men who died after 24 February have pictures of them wearing paratrooper uniforms.
21 buried men were not reported killed in action publicly. Many of the deceased served in the same brigade, at least six of them were commissioned officers, including Major Yury Zhogolev.
At least 52 servicemen of this brigade were killed in Ukraine, including Senior Sergeant Sergey Bolshakov and Lieutenant Colonel Denis Yagidarov. Some of the tombstones mention places of death, the most frequent locations being Hostomel and Volnovakha.
Andrey Pavlyukevich, 40, was killed on 5 March. He used to work as a road policeman before and was accused of bribery, agreed on a plea bargain and got away with a fine. He did not, however, pay his enforcement fee of around 50,000 rubles (€800).
Andrey Rozumny used to work as an agent for the Federal Drugs Control Agency and was found guilty of drug trafficking in 2018. He also fought in Ukraine and was reported dead on 20 May.
“34 paratroopers were killed between 25 February and 7 March. One man died on 18 March, three died on 25 March. Only one paratrooper was killed in April, and three more lost their lives in May,” Mediazona says.
Russia’s Defence Ministry reported its losses twice, on 2 and 25 March. Their last report said 1,351 Russian servicemen had died in Ukraine and 3,825 were injured. BBC Russia, however, identified 3,052 Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine.