Late last summer, a field outside the village of Bakinskaja in the Krasnodar region began to fill up with graves, writes Reuters. The simple wreaths are marked with the logo of the Wagner group – Russia’s feared private army of mercenaries.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies show how the cemetery in the South is growing at a rapid pace.
Drag the slider on the image to see the difference from November 13, 2021 to January 24, 2023. PHOTO: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
The fallen come from all over Russia, but are buried here, not far from the Kerch Bridge that connects Russia with Crimea.
– Sending the soldiers home to their families requires too many resources and logistics. Nor can the soldiers always be identified or have a family to be sent home to, says senior researcher Una Hakvåg to TV 2.
EXPERT: Senior researcher Una Hakvåg at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute speaks Russian and has a good knowledge of Russian mobilization. Photo: FFI
– This practice also has the advantage that it makes it easier to hide the number of deaths from the population, she adds.
The burial site is located in the Krasnodar region near the military base in Molkino, which, according to several sources, is used for training the Wagner group’s soldiers, explains the senior researcher.
Cross-checked with criminal records
The news agency Reuters visited the cemetery on 24 January, and was able to document 200 fresh graves. They cross-checked the names with public criminal records and social media and found that at least 39 of those buried were convicted criminals.
The news agency has also spoken to the families of several of the dead, who confirm that they were recruited into the Wagner group while in prison with promises to be free men after completing their service.
On Reuters’ list are the names of an assassin, murderers, serious criminals and people with serious drug problems.
No one knows how many Wagner soldiers have participated in the war in Ukraine, but the notorious group is said to have recruited at least 40,000 prison inmates, according to the organization, “Russia Behind Bars».
Hakvåg is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI), and has a good knowledge of, among other things, Russia’s traditions and the country’s defense policy.
– Russian soldiers who fall in war are usually given a military funeral at the state’s expense and it is common for dead soldiers from a military unit to be buried together in the area where the unit is located in peacetime, she explains.
One of the youngest people at the cemetery is 25-year-old Vadim Pushnya. According to the date on the cross, he died on November 19. Pushnya was imprisoned for breaking into garages, a beer shop and a cement factory in his hometown. Goryachiy Klyuch, writes Reuters.
The oldest person at the cemetery is 60-year-old Fail Nabiev. He was serving a sentence of one and a half years for breaking into a penal colony northeast of Moscow. His cross is adorned with a Muslim crescent. He died in October, less than five months after he was convicted.
– He always had crazy ideas. An incorrigible optimist, says Nabiev’s wife Viktorova, to Reuters.
She did not know he had signed an agreement with the Wagner group until she received the news of his death.
– He probably thought he was going to take a quick trip to Ukraine and make money, she says.
This photo is allegedly of Wagner soldiers and Prgozhin taken in one of the salt mines in Soledar in Donetsk Photo: CONCORD PRESS SERVICE
One of the hardened criminals who have ended up in the graveyard is Vyacheslav Kochas. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in St. Petersburg for murder and armed robbery in 2020. He was then 23 years old.
He and a friend allegedly broke into the flat of an acquaintance where he knocked the woman who lived there unconscious with an iron, before setting the house on fire.
Localized images via satellite
Videos and photos of the graves began circulating on social media in the Krasnodar region in December. Reuters geolocated the images, and compared them with satellite images from Maxar Technologies.
There you see a normal field in November 2021. One year later – in November 2022, there were three rows of graves on the field. Two months later, the whole field is filled with graves. See the photo series below:
This is how the plot of land looked on 13 November 2021. Photo: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
On November 24, 2022, three rows of graves were depicted on the plot. Photo: Maxar Technologies
Two months later – January 24, 2023, the ground is full of graves. Photo: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
Reuters has also spoken to the diggers at the cemetery. They have been told the bodies were sent from a Russian town bordering the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
According to the information on the crosses, many of the dead were killed between July and December 2022, including in Bakhmut and Donetsk.
The Norwegian expert believes it is likely that the graves belong to Wagner soldiers.
– The graves shown in the picture have floral decorations in the colors and pattern of the Wagner Group. It appears likely that these are soldiers who have died in the war, says Hakvåg.
WAGNER SYMBOL: Several of the graves are decorated with Wagner’s mark. REUTERS/Stringer Photo: STRINGER
The disclosure of the Wagner graves is praised by Aage Borchgrevink, who sits on the Helsinki Committee, where he leads the work for human rights in Georgia, Chechnya, and Russia.
– It shows how this system works, with recruitment in prisons and how they end up. Being recruited by the Wagner group is Russian roulette with many balls in the magazine, he says.
– I think the mortality rate is very high, adds Borchgrevink.
FOUNDER: Wagner boss, Jevgeny Prigozhin, lays red carnations on a grave with a Wagner symbol. Photo: RIA Novosti via Reuters.
Western and Ukrainian human rights organizations claim that the Wagner group uses convicts as cannon fodder in the war. So does the alleged Wagner defector Andrej Medvedev.
They are recruited from prisons with the promise of amnesty, pay and hero status.
Many say yes in the hope of improving their future. Others say yes because they fear what might happen in prison if they say no.
– Do you think the Wagner group will recruit more soldiers?
– Yes, I absolutely think so. It continues both in prisons and in other ways, with possibly foreign workers in a difficult situation or with those who have a lot of debt, who receive such an offer. Or perhaps by coercion, says Borchgrevink.
