Russia deploys mobile crematoriums to hide casualties after soldiers 'tricked' into going to war
A series of mobile crematoriums are claimed to be a part of Russia's war arsenal in Ukraine. The crematoriums are allegedly designed to disintegrate the bodies of dead soldiers and civilians in an attempt to conceal the ongoing war's real death toll.
As Vladimir Putin advanced his dangerous attack on Ukraine, a video of the crematoriums, originally posted in 2013, has resurfaced with renewed grim and fear. The trucks contain hidden incinerators but the exterior looks like regular vehicles. According to Western defense experts, these may be used to incinerate the bodies of soldiers to try and cover up the evidence of casualties.
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"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," British Defence Minister Ben Wallace told The Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile, members of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia have claimed that some of Vladimir Putin's young soldiers sent to fight in Ukraine were actually tricked into enlisting. The members have claimed that the soldiers, who were sent off to the conflict, were taken to the border after being told that they were heading there for practice drills. The soldiers, according to the committee, were beaten if they tried to back out.
The non-governmental committee formed in 1989 released a statement, with Andrei Kurochkin, the deputy chairman of the group, telling Russian site Takie Del, "We've had a flurry of calls from scared mothers all over Russia. They are crying, they don’t know if their children are alive or healthy." "If there is a war, then professionals should deal with it, not untrained green guys," he added.
The young men were allegedly told that they were going to the border for drills. "They are switching entire regiments to contract [soldiers,] although the guys did not submit any formal requests for this, and took no such initiative," Kurochkin said. "There are instances of physical violence, and beatings of those who refuse to become contract soldiers. And after that, it’s completely unknown [what happens to them] because they take away their phones." The group is set to file a formal complaint with the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine in an attempt to "defend separatists in the east of the country". "I have made the decision of a military operation to protect the people of the Donbas separatist region," he said in a television statement. The President urged Ukrainian soldiers to lay their arms down and head home. Putin announced the military operation on Thursday, February 24, with explosions heard across Ukraine soon after. Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “declared war on Ukraine".
The Ukrainian government has now claimed that its forces have retaken Antonov airport on the outskirts of Kyiv that was earlier seized by Russian airborne troops. This comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered compulsory enlistment and banned all men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Sources in the Ukraine's Armed Forces believe that over 60 Russian battalion tactical groups are now deployed in Ukrainian territory. Zelenskyy also claimed that he was "target number one" for Russian assassins. He informed that at least 137 Ukrainians have died in the conflict so far.