Mobile crematorium to follow Russian soldiers into battle ‘to evaporate losses’
RUSSIAN forces have prepared a mobile crematorium for use in any future conflict with Ukraine in a move which Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, described as “chilling”.
The Ministry of Defence has released footage of a vehicle-mounted furnace, which can “evaporate” one human body at a time and is trailing Russian forces.
Mr Wallace suggested the use of such a system may be a way for the Kremlin to cover up any combat losses, fearing a repeat of the criticism at home when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014.
In the film, an operator demonstrates how the device would work by incinerating a bag that had been loaded into the chamber by an automatic feeding mechanism.
Mr Wallace said that if Russian forces instigate conflict in Ukraine “we expect to see some of the things they’ve done previously”. He added: “Previously they’ve deployed mobile crematoriums to follow troops around the battlefield, which in anyone’s book is chilling.
“If I was a soldier and knew that my generals had so little faith in me that they followed me around the battlefield with a mobile crematorium, or I was the mother or father of a son, potentially deployed into a combat zone, and my government thought that the way to cover up losses was a mobile crematorium, I’d be deeply, deeply worried.
“It’s a very chilling side effect of how the Russians view their forces and for those of you who served, and being a soldier, knowing that trundling behind you is a way to evaporate you if you are killed in battle ... probably says everything you need to know about the Russian regime.”
In the footage released by the MOD text overlaid on the video says the equipment comes from a St Petersburg company called Turmalin. The company’s website describes it as “The Russian Incinerator Company”.
Attempts to contact the company went unanswered.
In 2014, media outlets, human rights groups and local activists reported that Russian soldiers were being buried in unmarked graves in a bid to hide the fact they were operating inside Ukraine.
Protest groups, many formed by mothers of missing and dead soldiers, sprang up across Russia rejecting attempts by the authorities to blame deaths on individuals who had wandered across the border.
One group, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, blamed Vladimir Putin for violating international law and said Russian military commanders forced soldiers to fight illegally in Ukraine “while mothers receive coffins with their sons, anonymously”, according to