How Russia is hiding its war dead in Ukraine-Novaya Gazeta Europe

Sursa: Kremlin.ru

Journalists at the BBC Russia and Mediazona have worked with volunteers and open-source data to confirm the deaths of more than 4,515 Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

According to the BBC, the number of military personnel buried in Russia since the start of the February 2022 is likely twice as high, given regular evidence of “new military funerals that the local authorities do not report.”

Journalists found that 17 percent of the dead are officers, while volunteers remain the “fastest growing” casualty category (averaging 30–40 reported deaths per week).

Russia’s defense ministry hasn’t commented for months on the number of its troops killed in Ukraine. In late March, the military acknowledged 1,351 deaths. Ukrainian officials say more than 35,000 Russian combatants have been killed since the start of the February invasion.

Independent Russian Novaya Gazeta Europe reported the total sum of payouts allocated to families of Russian soldiers killed and injured in Ukraine has surpassed 113 billion rubles (1.78 billion euros).

Some 89 billion rubles (1.4 billion euros) have already been paid out. It says this could be evidence of Russia having lost at least 10-11% of its military personnel from the initial group of forces that invaded Ukraine in February.

Meanwhile, many victims of the war are not getting compensated, yet the overall spending on the army, Russia’s National Guard, and the classified budget lines for this year could end up costing at least 8.2 trillion rubles (129 billion euros).

The publication shared its findings on how much the defense ,inistry thinks a Russian serviceman’s life is worth and whether Russia will have enough resources to restore the war machine.

How much is a soldier’s life worth?

On 3 March, at the beginning of the war, before Bucha or Mariupol, Vladimir Putin made a declaration. “Our soldiers and officers strive not to allow any civilian death, and, unfortunately, are experiencing losses themselves,” he said.

During the same speech, he proposed to increase the payouts in case of an injury or death of a soldier fighting in Ukraine: up to 4.5 million rubles (71,052 euros) to an injured conscript, up to 6 million rubles (94,736 euros) to an injured contract serviceman, and up to 9.5 million rubles (150,000 euros) — to families of a killed soldier. Additionally, all servicemen get military insurance in case of injury or death, up to 3 million rubles.

By 10 March, two weeks after the beginning of the war, the money for the promised payouts started to be allocated. The Ministry of Finance allocated 1.5 billion rubles to the National Guard and 15 billion — to the defense ministry, about the same as the payout amount calculated after the first week’s fighting losses — during that week, 498 Russian soldiers had been killed, and 1,597 wounded.

At the end of March, the payouts reserves were increased up to 32 billion rubles (505 million euros). At the beginning of April — up to 60 billion (947 million euros). This was despite the fact that the defense ministry  only officially confirmed that 1,351 soldiers had died and 3,825 had been injured.

During the “second phase of the special operation”, when Russian troops began their capture of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the speed of the increase of the allocated funds dropped dramatically.

The last time the payouts limit was increased for the National Guard was on 27 April — up to 8.3 billion rubles (131 million euros).

The interior ministry was allocated 414 million rubles (6.5 million euros), only once. The biggest amount for the payouts was allocated to the defense ministry which received 104 billion rubles (1.64 billion euros) from the government reserve fund.

The fund has grown due to income from oil and gas income, which has grown, in part, because of the war.

It appears that, by the beginning of the summer, at least 63 out of 88 already designated billion rubles had been allocated to the regions for the payouts.

One can see which military units from which regions are taking part in the war (from almost all of them) and who suffered the biggest losses. The biggest amount of money has been transferred to the Rostov and Zabaykalsky regions. These regions are where the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army and 29th Combined Arms army are based. Rostov also hosts the Southern Military District Headquarters.

The biggest losses could have been suffered by the Southern and Western Military Districts — they are the most combat ready military districts of Russia. The lowest amount of money was received by the parts of the Eastern Military District (excluding the Northern Fleet).

Russian volunteers, doctors, government officials, and officials from the ministry of emergency situations are also suffering losses.

They are eligible for a 3 million ruble) payout in case of an injury or 5 million rublesin the case of their death. The federal budget has already paid out 300 million rubles in compensation.

“No body, no compensation”

The 113 billion rubles that has been allocated for the payouts would cover the deaths of 4,000 to 7,000 people and 7,000 to 12,000 people wounded in the war.

By these calculation, some  15 to 17 thousand soldiers have been wounded or killed, about 10-11% of the initial group of forces that invaded Ukraine in February.

These numbers are close to the estimates of the army’s losses verified by the journalists of Istories and Mediazona.

Yet, most likely, these numbers are way lower than in reality. The last time the Russian Defence Ministry reported the number of losses was at the end of March — according to them, 1,300 Russian soldiers had died.

In May, the UK defense ministry estimated that the Russian army had lost around 15,000 soldiers. According to Ukraine, 37,400 servicemen had died.

Maxim Grebenyuk, lawyer and head of the human rights defence project Military Ombudsman, says that he receives hundreds of complaints due to rejected compensations for an injury.

“At first, there weren’t clear guidelines of what is considered to be wound, trauma, concussion, or injury. And everyone who had applied got paid, really quickly, even if they had the slightest injury or concussion,” he explains. “But on 22 April, the Defence Ministry established a procedure for getting compensation, and serious problems followed.”

Now, the government provides benefits only according to a list of injuries listed in the governmental resolution#855. If am injury is not on the list, then the soldier is refused any compensation.

“That resolution would be more fitting for peacetime. What we ended up having is a soldier with a broken finger receiving both the insurance and three million rubles. Meanwhile, if a soldier, for example, has a penetrating flesh wound or multiple shrapnel wounds following a mine-field trauma, which, however, did not lead to tendon, muscle, great blood vessels, or nerve damage, then that person is not fit for compensation. I have got a lot of clients with serious injuries, too,” Grebenyuk adds.

It is rare, but sometimes even the families of the killed soldiers are refused compensation.

The payouts are for a strict number of relatives only: parents, spouses, and children. “There was a case when a soldier, a single and childless orphan, died. His brother and sister, whom he grew up and was very friendly with, unfortunately, got no compensation,” he says.

War budget

The war, overall, has been pretty expensive for Russia. Every third ruble from the federal budget goes to either the defense ministry, the National Guard, or the classified budget lines that include the purchase of arms and the work of special services.

The war has cost the Russian government 3.6 trillion rubles or 56.8 billion euros over the past six months — a trillion more than the same period last year.

By the end of the year, spending could reach at least 8.2 trillion rubles (129 billion euros). The finance ministry has already approved this sum.

The government has decided  to increase the military budget by 2.2 trillion rubles (35 billion euros).

The government has spent over a trillion rubles  “purchasing arms and military equipment” only, almost 440 billion rubles more than the same period of last year.

“These 440 billion, most likely, go towards major repairs and modernisation of existing technology. Currently, not only repair companies but also the companies that produce these machines — UralVagonZavod in Nizhny Tagil, Omsktransmash, Kurganmashzavod — are busy with major repairs and modernisation. The roads leading up to their factories are filled with tank and armoured car echelons. The factories are full,” says Pavel Luzin.

He is certain that Russia cannot increase its military equipment purchases, seeing as not enough of it is getting built. Usually, the Russian army just modernises Soviet machines. For example, T-80 tanks get modernised into T-80BVM. “Even if all factories introduce three shifts per day, no one will be able to provide them with enough material, staff, appliances, or needed parts.”

Considering its current losses, Russia will need from three to ten years to restore the number of missiles, planes, and armoured vehicles back to its February level.

Technology sanctions could lead to the losses being irrecoverable. “All the modern equipment at the factories is Western, most of it American and European, some Japanese stuff. Everything that was bought before 2014,” explains Luzin. Without new Western parts and new equipment, the production volume will gradually decrease, with the arms getting less and less modern and losing their quality.

A big part of the budget goes to servicemen’s salaries and other benefits. An upkeep of the army is not cheap even in peacetime. Meanwhile, during the war, these expenses increased by 62 billion rubles  and reached 440 billion or 7 billion euros in the last six months. That is more than was spent on the entire system of higher education during the same time period.

Separately, some 11.8 billion rubles  were reserved for refugees from Ukraine and 7.1 billion has already been spent.

Not all government bodies have benefited equally from the war the same way. The Federal Protective Service (FSB, successor to the KGB) saw  its expenses rise to 1.9 billion rubles, the largest increase percentage-wise.

Some agencies are seeing  budget cuts such as customs agents, and tax authorities.

Rosmolodezh, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs has spent eight times more this year than last year. It is hiring volunteers for the purpose of restoring the infrastructure on the occupied Ukrainian territories.

The has also brought additional income from oil and gas sales. The prices have soared due to fears that Russia could stop deliveries. As a result, war expenses  are being covered by the additional income.

In April, the budget received almost a trillion (16 billion euros) in excess oil and gas income.

In total, the additional income is more than 3.3 trillion rubles or 52 billion euros, which is close to the  amount that Russia spends on the army, the National Guard and classified budget lines.

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