# Ukraine War: Dead Russian Soldiers Cremated? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 27, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958 "2015-05-27T13:29:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/1 "2015-05-27T13:29:40Z")
I just heard of this rather bizarre story. According to the CNN reports, Putin is concealing the extent of Russian combat deaths (in the Eastern Ukraine), by having the bodies cremated (by mobile crematoriums). So when a Russian family asks the military about their son (and why he doesn’t write or call), they just say that he’s no longer around? Does this make sense? Sooner or later the truth would get out. Anyway, are there any reliable numbers about the casualties of this war? I have never heard of mobile crematoriums-one report said that these are used to destroy the bodies of dead farm animals. Anybody able to confirm this story? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/2 "2015-05-27T14:30:13Z")
Without a link to the article, it’s just speculation, but it seems to me that the main reason you’d want to use the mobile crematoria would be to avoid having to ship bodies back to families in Russia, or have people digging graves/putting up headstones in existing cemeteries. If you’re cremating them on the fly, then you can just hang onto the remains, which are relatively small, or you can just dump them somewhere (a river, a big hole, etc…). There’s no time pressure to actually make with the body due to decomposition, and you can always claim that they were MIA or something. It might take someone a long time to put all the pieces together and figure out exactly how many casualties the Russians are suffering, if there aren’t bodies, tombstones, or truckloads of bodies going to Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/3 "2015-05-27T15:51:22Z")
The Russian Army has always been a law unto themselves, but I doubt they could just say their conscripts have wandered off without going through the motions of posting them as deserters. Plus there would indeed be items returned for indefinite storage in rather grim warehouses. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/4 "2015-05-27T17:16:58Z")
[Beria in Hell] I wish I’d thought of that for Katyn. I tell you, there’s a man after my own heart![/Beria in Hell] ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/5 "2015-05-27T19:45:52Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > The Russian Army has always been a law unto themselves, but I doubt they could just say their conscripts have wandered off without going through the motions of posting them as deserters. > Plus there would indeed be items returned for indefinite storage in rather grim warehouses. Sure, but you don’t have to cough that stuff up, and nor do you have to return the remains in any kind of reasonable time frame either. I mean, Putin can go on his adventure in Ukraine, and there’s no pressure on him from the mounting numbers of dead soldiers arriving in Russia for burial, nor are there ashes or personal effects showing up. As far as the families know, they’re still in the army, but are just incommunicado. Eventually he’ll have to fess up, but on his own timeframe, not someone else’s. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/6 "2015-05-28T18:38:03Z")
I doubt the Russians are concealing the death of individual soldiers from their families. They could well be concealing the total number of deaths from all but a chosen few. That way they can report whatever they want and it would be difficult to prove otherwise. With multiple mobile crematoriums in use and familes spread all over Russia, no one but the PTB see the whole picture ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/7 "2015-05-28T19:29:06Z")
I don’t see the particular need to conceal any soldier’s death from his family. You can go to a thousand families and tell them that their child died serving his country, and then go on TV and tell the country a hundred soldiers died. There’s no way for the thousand families of dead soldiers to get together and compare notes, and if anyone suggests a parade or support group for the mothers of dead soldiers, you just tell them no. Things are a lot easier in a country where you control the media. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/8 "2015-05-29T01:02:14Z")
Russian didn’t seem to give a crap about saving the submariners in the Kursk when it sank, nor did they care what the public thought about their lack of effort. I imagine any attempt to cremate their dead is merely an attempt to save the trouble of dealing with the the bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ukraine-war-dead-russian-soldiers-cremated/720958/9 "2015-05-29T01:15:38Z")
Putin speaks, or actually, declares deaths state secrets. _For years, the tally of Russian troops who died at war has been a state secret. Now, President Vladimir Putin says his government won’t reveal the number of military deaths during peacetime either._ > **[Putin makes Russia's peacetime military deaths a state secret | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/europe/russia-putin-peacetime-military-deaths-state-secret/index.html)** > > A presidential decree puts Russia’s military losses “in peacetime during special operations” on the country’s list of state secrets.