Soldiers’ bodies bear witness to Russia’s support of rebels

SELIZOVO, Russia — In a far corner of a small cemetery outside this tiny village by the Oka River, a black flag proclaiming the military might of Russia’s tank forces ripples in the wind above the recently dug grave of Sergeant Vladislav A. Barakov. A photograph of the baby-faced soldier in full dress uniform sits propped against a wooden cross with a small plaque that says he died on Aug. 24. He was 21.

What the plaque does not say — and what no one wants to talk about — is how and where the young sergeant died: blown up in a tank while sent to fight in eastern Ukraine, where Russia’s leaders have denied any role other than as facilitators of peace.

Barakov, who served in Russia’s Sixth Tank Brigade, was one of dozens — some say hundreds — of Russian soldiers killed in action over the summer.

Their bodies have been returned in recent weeks to loved ones who in many cases had no idea where they were sent to fight, have received little information about how they died and, in any event, are being pressured not to talk about it. Some families have even been threatened with losing any compensation if they do.

“We are just ordinary people,” Barakov’s uncle, who declined to give his name, said in a clipped reply when asked for details of his nephew’s death. “You have more ways of finding out than we do.”

Much of the information about regular Russian troops in Ukraine has come from soldiers themselves — posting about their deployments on social media, as well as about the deaths of comrades fighting there.

Yet even as the Kremlin’s official line has crumbled, with at least three online databases charting Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, efforts to sustain the coverup have persisted.

“Apparently there is an unspoken order to deny losses and hide graves,” said Lev Shlosberg, a regional lawmaker who was beaten and hospitalized last month after he began documenting the deaths of soldiers who were based in Pskov. The city, in northwest Russia, is home to a celebrated unit, the 76th Guards Air Assault Division.

“Many of those funerals have been held either at dawn or early in the morning so that only few would see them,” adding shame to the grie f and heartbreak of military families, Shlosberg said.

“They are ready to go to war,” he said of the ser vice members. “But secret funerals humiliate them.”

Shlosberg has published a list of 12 soldiers from the local base who were killed in Ukraine but said he believed there were hundreds more. He said revealing the truth would help end the conflict. “The only goal is to stop this war,” Shlosberg said.

Already, the deaths have forced the Kremlin to adjust its message, and officials now acknowledge that some Russian “volunteers” went to Ukraine.