More than 200 freshly dug graves bearing the insignia of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group have been located at a cemetery in Russia’s third-largest city of Novosibirsk, the Siberia-based news site Tayga.info reported Tuesday.
Wagner wreaths can be seen next to the majority of the tombs in footage shared by the outlet.
The years of death on the gravestones range from late 2022 to early 2023, with most of the dead hailing from the Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk regions as well as other neighboring regions.
Tayga.info said many of the names displayed on the graves have not been previously seen in official lists of Russia’s war dead.
No official figures for the number of Wagner fighters killed in Ukraine have been made public. Thousands of the group's mercenaries, including those recruited from Russian prisons, are believed to have been killed at the front.
Some of the names on tombstones in Novosibirsk match those of convicted felons with long jail terms, according to Tayga.info.
Earlier this month, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was filmed visiting a cemetery where the group's fighters are buried, where he admitted that the cemetery was "growing."
"Those who fight sometimes die. That's how life works," he said.
Previous reporting said earlier this month that the fallen soldiers’ relatives had not been notified of their deaths and were left without insurance payments.
Independent media reported last week that penal colonies in roughly half of Russia’s regions “lost” more than 17,000 prisoners in 2022 — likely attributable to Wagner’s recruitment. The figure nationwide is likely much higher.
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