The Kremlin has for the first time distributed a manual to soldiers on how to dig and maintain mass graves as Russia suffers growing casualties in its war in Ukraine.
A 20-page textbook, Civil Defence: Urgent burials of corpses in wartime, is filled with diagrams showing mass graves with body bags piled on top of one another.
It also features tables detailing the equipment and manpower needed to dig a grave for 100 people.
“Under normal working conditions, burying 100 dead in one mass grave will require 368.5 man hours,” it said.
The manual, which appears to be an updated version of one published in 2021, shows an emergency worker in a protective suit and helmet standing in front of a helicopter on the front cover.
Russian forces have suffered around 1200 daily casualties for most of this year, with Moscow aiming to take advantage of mobilisation and ammunition challenges facing Ukraine.
Western intelligence estimates have said that Russia may have lost up to 680,000 men, through death or injury, but the only documented use of mass graves to bury Russian soldiers, so far, has been in occupied parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Experts believe Russia is suffering large numbers of casualties because of its favoured swarm infantry tactics, which involve troops attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian forces with sheer numbers.
At the weekend, Ukraine’s General Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of the Ukrainian military, said his forces were now facing the most intense onslaught by Russian forces since the start of the war in February 2022.
“Currently, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the beginning of the full-scale invasion,” he said.
Russian forces have been attempting to capture key supply hubs on the frontline before harsher weather arrives in the winter.
As many as 13,000 North Korean soldiers are also expected to be deployed alongside Russian forces, likely in its southern Kursk region, which was invaded by Ukraine in August.
The Russian Ministry of Defence has claimed the capture of a handful more villages in Ukraine.
Russia’s recent gains have reportedly forced Ukraine into thinking about negotiating with the Kremlin, according to the Two Majors Russian military Telegram channel.
“The reasons for such behaviour of the enemy are the visible successes of the Russian Army at the front and nothing more,” the pro-Moscow channel said.
Ukraine and its supporters are also concerned about the result of the United States presidential election on Wednesday NZT.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is sceptical of Ukraine’s chances of defeating Russia and should he win he may cut off critical US military aid, analysts say.