Price of the war: The bodies of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine are being transported from Belarus back to their homeland by trains and planes in the dead of night, in order to avoid attention, the British Daily Mail newspaper reported today (Sunday). A video released by Free Europe Radio, an independent station covering the events of the war, showed military ambulances traveling through the city of Homail earlier this month, carrying workers from the local hospital, carrying more than 2,500 bodies sent back to Russia.
The Ukrainian military is known to have killed more than 14,000 Russian troops in fighting so far since the invasion began in late February. However, US intelligence estimates that around 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that over 500 soldiers were killed.
The medical team documented in the city of Homail claimed that the cargo of the bodies was “overflowing”, referring, as stated, to the number of Russian soldiers killed. A resident of the city of Mazir in southeastern Belarus claimed: “Passengers at the local train station were in the market from the amount of bodies loaded onto the train. After people began filming what was happening, the military personnel supervising the loading stopped them and demanded that they delete the videos.”
A doctor from the town warned: “We do not have enough surgeons. Earlier, the bodies were transported here by ambulances and loaded onto Russian trains. After someone videotaped what was happening, and uploaded to the internet, they began loading the bodies onto trains at night, to avoid residents’ attention.” Senior officials at No. 4 Hospital, located in the city of Homail, have been releasing patients since the beginning of the month because they could not keep up with the number of Russian soldiers who came to be hospitalized.
Deployment of Russian forces in southern Belarus (Photo: Reuters)A city resident who was hospitalized and released claimed: “There were so many Russians injured there – it’s just a horror show. Some are dismembered. It’s impossible to hear them screaming in pain all over the hospital.” Another doctor described with concern the possible shortage of drugs and equipment that would arise as a result of the heavy load, and had already claimed that there were “problems with tetanus vaccines”. The same vaccines, of course, are usually given to those who are injured by bullets, metals and spray wounds.
The city of Homail borders Russia to the east, and is the second largest in Belarus after the capital Minsk. As is well known, Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, backing Russian President Vladimir Putin by allowing him to move his military forces through the country bordering Ukraine to the north, just tens of kilometers from the capital Kyiv.
Putin and Lukashenko (Photo: AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / ALEXEI DRUZHININ / AFP / SPUTNIK / ALEXEI DRUZHININ)Russian losses – close to the numbers of the Second World War
As you may recall, US intelligence has estimated that 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting so far. By comparison, in the military operation in Iraq that the United States carried out for eight years, 4,825 soldiers were killed. In Afghanistan, 3,576.
Also, according to sources in the Ukrainian army, the amount of Russian military equipment damaged in the battles stands at 466 tanks, 115 helicopters, 914 vehicles, 95 aircraft, 213 artillery systems and rocket launchers, 44 anti-aircraft systems and 60 fuel tanks. However, difficult Confirm and cross-reference this information due to the heavy smoke screen spreading through the air in the shadow of the battles.