A photo by Maxar showed how the Wagner cemetery grew in two months – from November 24, 2022 to January 24, 2023.
The New York Times reported that the cemetery belonged to PIK Wagner.
In September last year, a video appeared in which PIK owner Yevgen Prigozhin campaigned for prisoners to take part in the war against Ukraine and mentions “an honorable burial near the Wagner Chapel.” Subsequently, a video was published where Prigozhin lays flowers on someone’s fresh grave.
In December, the existence of graves near the main PIK training center in the village of Molkino was first confirmed by former Russian Air Force officer Vitaly Votanovsky. He claims that he was informed about the funeral by local residents. This site is probably used to bury the unclaimed bodies of the “Wagnerites”.
The newspaper writes that the expansion of the cemetery coincides with a bloody offensive by Russian soldiers and mercenaries to gain ground in eastern Ukraine. The US government claims that Wagner casualties on the battlefield number in the thousands, and that 90% of them are prisoners who were recruited to fight in exchange for being fired if they survived.
A satellite image taken on January 24 shows about 170 burial plots. This number has grown almost seven times compared to satellite imagery just two months ago.
The mentioned “Wagner Chapel” is located 13 km from the cemetery. In one of Prigozhin’s videos, journalists studied “rows of black walls containing compartments typical for the burial of cremated remains.”
Each compartment has an identification number and a display of the battle decorations of the deceased, The Times has identified a total of 21 such walls, each containing 42 compartments, indicating that hundreds of dead “Wagnerites” are buried or at least immortalized here. .
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.