"I didn't know he was dead"/ Hundreds of Wagner's mercenaries are being buried in silence

2023-05-08 08:07:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"I didn't know he was dead"/ Hundreds of Wagner's

Illustrative photo

"I didn't know that he died", said Nadezhda Skaleyush, after realizing that her father's grave was found in an area reserved for Russian mercenaries, killed in Ukraine.

"Well, the data on the grave belong to him."

Skaleyush had no idea that her father, 40-year-old Aleksandr Skaleyush, had been recruited from prison by Kremlin-linked Wagner group mercenaries.

Asked if he would prefer recruitment, she said: "Most likely yes".

Radio Free Europe's Idel Realities platform has found that Skaleyush's grave is among 200 other graves in a cemetery in Nikolayevka, a village with 522 inhabitants, according to the 2010 census.

About 25 kilometers southeast of the Volga River, in the city of Samara, the village is located in the area of ??the highway, but there is no access to public transport.

By car from Samara, it takes only half an hour to get there.

In mid-April, Wagner's boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, made a trip to Nikolayevka to present a memorial plaque to the mercenaries who are buried there.

"The fighters of the private security company, Wagner, are buried here, who died for their country, in the period 2022-23", writes the obelisk.

Although no journalist was invited to the ceremony, Wagner published a video in which Prigozhin said that "our descendants will remember the contribution of the soldiers for centuries".

Moscow has not disclosed the data on the losses it has suffered in Ukraine since the start of the war in February of last year.

The United States estimates that about 10,000 Wagner mercenaries have been killed in the last five months alone, and that most have died around the Bahmut fighting zone.

Prigozhin himself has described the battle in Bahmut as a "meat grinder", and has complained that his forces are not well armed.

Journalists have discovered seven Wagner cemeteries, six in Russia and one in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine.

At the beginning of April, journalists have discovered at least 69 graves of Wagner in the cemetery in Novosibirsk.

An area of ??the cemetery in Irkutsk has been set aside for members of Wagner and the bodies of 11 people are already buried there.

In March, about 70 graves of Wagner members were found in Yekaterinburg.

Journalists reported in April that the number had risen to 106.

Graves of Wagner members have also been found in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

At the beginning of April, journalists identified 607 graves of Wagner in the village of Bakinskaya, Krasnodar region.

About 100 other graves have been found in the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk.

Although Wagner insists the men died heroes, the group appears to be making a constant effort to bury its members in various locations without much fanfare.

Searching through the accounts of deceased members of Wagner - on social networks - Radio Free Europe has managed to contact some family members, and learn more about the path that led them to Ukraine.

"I don't know what to tell you"

According to court documents, Aleksandr Skaleyush, a resident of the southern city of Orenburg, stopped a passerby in June 2020 and stole his phone.

He later sold that phone to a taxi driver for $15.

After a year, the police found him and arrested him.

In court, Skaleyush is reported to have confessed and repented.

On June 30, 2022, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to one year in prison.

"None of our family members wanted to be in contact with him," her daughter told Radio Free Europe.

"He has been constantly in trouble with the law. Constantly drunk. I don't know what to tell you. He didn't work. He consumed a lot of alcohol. He's gone in 2020, and that's all I know."

Skaleyush's social media pages were active until March 2022.

According to the inscription on the grave, he was killed in Ukraine on November 19, 2022.

After speaking to Radio Free Europe, Nadezhda Skaleyush contacted Wagner to get more information about her father.

She said that members of Wagner sarcastically told her to obtain a death certificate "from the journalist who informed her" that her father had died.

A representative for Wagner later confirmed that her father had died.

The grave at Nikolayevka, of Mikhail Skripkin, is one of the few graves that has photographs.

The Orthodox cross is decorated with a picture of him in military uniform, from the time he served in the army, after finishing high school.

When he was killed on October 27, 2022, he was 32 years old.

"Yes, he is my brother," Dmitry Skripkin told Radio Free Europe, after being shown the photo of the grave.

"I didn't know he died."

Although Dmitry Skripkin has declined to speak further on the subject, his wife, Yekaterina Koltunova, has agreed to be interviewed.

"We knew that he went to war on October 1," she said.

"He has just served half of his sentence, but he has been told that he will serve another six months as a soldier, and then he can be released."

She said that the fact that he was killed in the war, just three weeks later, shows how poorly prepared Wagner's mercenaries are.

Koltunova has said that Skripkin was encouraged to go to war by an aunt of his, with a pro-war approach.

"She told him that the men are returning from there, and that they are taking a lot of money," said Koltunova.

"After he declared that he wants to go to war."

In July 2016, when he was 25 years old, Skripkin got busy with a package of three mobile phones.

He testified later that he had no idea that there were 14 grams of heroin in the box.

He was then arrested and is believed to have been very drunk at the time of his arrest. Skripkin said that a friend of his in prison begged him to smuggle phones in exchange for money.

He denied that he had knowledge that there were drugs in the package.

The court in Samara sentenced him to 10 years and one month in prison.

"Misha really wanted to serve in the army," said Koltunova, to show "that he is strong." He was previously in the army, in Lipetsk. He is back to normal. He has been very caring and generous. He had no family of his own. Good boy. I don't know what else to say. He has planned to return to the army, as they have promised to give him an apartment. But then he ended up in prison".

Koltunova later told Radio Free Europe that she and her husband are in contact with Wagner, in an ongoing effort to confirm the death of her brother-in-law, and to secure a death certificate.

"No one would go get it"

Another grave of Wagner's member in Nikolaevka bears the name of Yury Zhartsev.

Through his accounts on social networks, Radio Free Europe has learned that he was from Ufa, a city in the Bashkortostan region.

He was 44 years old when he was killed in Ukraine on January 18, 2023.

"My Yurka had a modest biography," said his ex-wife, Oksana Zemlyanskaya.

"He was part of a big family, the seventh child. I was friends with his sister and have known her since we were children. But when he turned 15, he fell into bad company and lost control over his life. After he was imprisoned, he lost his whole family".

Zemlyanskaya has said that he has been convicted several times for theft and assault.

On July 29, 2011, the court in Ufa sentenced Zhartsev to 12 and a half years in prison for murder.

Zhartsev has pleaded not guilty, saying he did not intend to kill anyone.

Zemlyanskaya said that Zhartsev did not tell her that he was going to Ukraine, but added that it is not a surprise, because they divorced a long time ago.

She also said that she would not be surprised if she found out that he asked to be buried in a Wagner cemetery in the Samara region, instead of being sent to his home in Ufa.

"He knew that no one would go to get him", she said, adding that she will try to visit his grave in Nikolajevka./ Rel