Russia's military may be trying to hide Russian deaths in Ukraine by proposing to take over payments for family, UK says

Jake Epstein
Updated ·2 min read
5

  • Putin's military could be trying to hide the true Russian death toll in Ukraine, UK intelligence said on Monday.

  • Russia proposed the military take over compensation payments for family from civilian officials.

  • The Kremlin has refused to acknowledge a death toll in Ukraine, but admitted "significant losses."

Russia's military could be trying to hide the death toll of its troops in Ukraine by proposing to take over compensation payments for family, UK intelligence said on Monday.

Rather than civilian officials providing compensation payments for the families of dead Russian soldiers, Russia's defense ministry has proposed that the military oversee the service, UK's defense ministry wrote in a tweet.

"This likely reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia's losses from the domestic population," the UK said.

Russia so far has refused to say exactly how many of its troops have been killed during the two-month war in Ukraine — it said in late March that 1,351 troops were killed and around 4,000 were wounded.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged earlier this month that Russia has suffered "significant losses" on the battlefield, and added that it's "a huge tragedy for us."

While the exact death toll is not known, there have been varying estimates: NATO says the death toll is likely closer to 15,000, and Ukraine says it has killed 20,000 Russian troops.

Russia reportedly transported thousands of dead soldiers from Ukraine to Belarus, and Ukraine said there are thousands of unclaimed Russian corpses in its morgues.

On the domestic front, Russian state-run media has painted its war in Ukraine as a success and there has been little reveal of any struggle that President Vladimir Putin's forces faced.

Local newspapers in Russia were told to avoid reporting on soldiers' deaths, and families were ordered to keep silent.

In an attempt to try and turn Russians against the war, Ukraine has used facial recognition software to send photos of dead Russian troops to their families.

Read the original article on Business Insider