World | Politics

Dead Russian Soldiers Are Stacking Up In Ukraine — With Nowhere To Go

What do you do when the enemy doesn’t take back their dead?

Honoring your dead is immensely important in Russian/Ukrainian culture. But only one-half of this equation is living up to this tradition. (Editorial rights purchased via iStock Photos)

A refrigerated train pulls up on the outskirts of Bucha. A metallic door slides open with a clang.

Four Ukrainian men hobble forward, their feet crunching on the gravel. In their hands is the body of a Russian soldier. The body is stiff and shrouded in a white plastic bag.

It was buried hastily and without ceremony.

The body is loaded onto the frigid cart alongside dozens of others. Many of them will never be claimed or identified.

The Kremlin won’t allow the bodies back into Russia and doesn’t acknowledge most deaths. It also won’t provide DNA databases to Ukraine to help identify these bodies.

It’s symptomatic of a massive problem that’s rolling towards the Kremlin.

The problem with hiding deaths

Most of the dead Russian soldiers are young, inexperienced, and from regions outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

To date, Russia has only acknowledged 1500 casualties.