As the war in Ukraine continues, Russians mourn for slain soldiers

Now the first death reports are being made in Russia for soldiers killed in action in Ukraine. And with over 100,000 Russian soldiers now believed to be in Ukraine, many families across Russia are looking forward to news.

The cemetery here is covered with snow and silence. Near the end of the central alley, a newly dug grave wrapped in plastic sheets opens under a tree.

It is the tomb of Maxim Khanygin, born and raised in this village west of the city of Saratow of the Volga River.

But his body is not here and may not come before Russia's war in Ukraine is over.

Khanygin died in the early hours of the launch of Ukraine's Russian invasion on February 24th a day before his 22nd birthday.

Everybody's asking when? When? When?'”, said Khanygin's grandmother, Natalia to Radio Free Europe, referring to funeral plans.

But we don't know when. A military representative came and said they would not bring my grandson home until the special operation” is over, she said.

Special operation is the wording that Russian authorities use and are pressuring all Russians to use to refer to the unprotested war that has killed thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

During the last eight or more years, the funerals of soldiers and mercenaries have attracted what for the Russian President Vladimir Putin government is an unwanted attention to death in the wars in Syria and eastern Ukraine.

In the latter, Moscow claimed there were troops before the new invasion, despite numerous evidence testifying otherwise.

After the new massive escalation, with Russian forces targeting cities in much of Ukraine, the government said nothing to Russian victims for days and later announced on March 2nd that 498 Russian soldiers were killed and 1,597 were injured.

Ukrainian officials have said that more than 9,000 Russian military officers have been killed or injured in combat. These numbers are not possible to be independently confirmed.

The European Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), a Russian-based open source monitoring group, has praised Russia's killed in the war of about 700.

However, this does not mean that the number is no bigger”, CIT analyst Ruslan Leviyev said.

“could be 1,000 or even 2,000”, he said.

Ukraine has not provided figures of victims for its army, but its emergency service said on March 2nd that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed since the beginning of the invasion.

News of Khanygin's death came to his family in Ozyornoye on February 25th, when the head of the regional military office summoned his mother, Lyudmila Khangyina.

During Friday, my youngest nephew, Fuodor, ran to me and shouted: Uncle, come quickly. Mom's passed out. Maxim's dead! '”, Natalia said.

The written announcement came shortly afterwards.

The next day, the whole village had heard the news. They brought money and flowers and placed wreaths in the city. The head of the collective farm where Lyudmila works helped secure a burial parcel and paid to erect a cross.

Reports of killed soldiers have begun slowly flocking to Russia.

Ilynur Sibratul, a soldier from the town of Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan, north of Saratowi in Volga, was killed in Ukraine on February 26th.

A plane carrying his body arrived in Tatarstan on March 2nd, and according to Muslim customs, he was buried the same day.

On March 3rd, a group of veterans reported the death of Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, in combat near the Ukrainian port city of Marioupolis.

He was one of Russia's most decorated and experienced combat officers.

On the same day, Novosibirsk Oblast Governor Andrei Travnikov confirmed the deaths of two unidentified soldiers from his region.

On March 2nd, local authorities said in the Instagram that 31-year-old Ali Batyrov, from Batzenoye in the southwest region of Astrakhan, was killed in Ukraine on 28 February.

He held the major rank, was injured and decorated in Syria, was commander battalion, and left his wife and children behind.

The same day, officials in the Selenginsky district of Burytha reported death in Ukraine of Lieutenant Ilija Semyonov, who was also a war veteran in Syria, where Russia has given government forces substantial military support since 2015.

A day earlier, Astrakhan's Oblast Governor Igor Babuskin confirmed the death of a local soldier named Arman Naynbayev in Ukraine.

Officials in the North Caucasus republics have also confirmed the death of dozens of military officers.

Galina Zinoviyeva lives in the village of Nizeny Urs, in Tatarstan.

She has received no news of her military son, 21-year-old Maxim, since 28 January, when he said she had arrived in Belarus for training.

He would return to his home base on February 20th on the planned final day of training in Belarus, which lies north of Ukraine and has been a site for the Russian invasion.

“We are in a state of uncertainty”, it told Radio Free Europe.

“Where's Maximi now, why don't you call?”, she asked. / REL