WAR HORRORS
Harrowing pics show one of the world’s largest planes delivering coffins of dead Russian soldiers from Ukraine war
A new analysis found some soldiers are being sent to war soon after school
HORRIFYING images show one of the world’s largest planes bringing coffins of dead Russian soldiers from Putin's war in Ukraine.
A hulking Ilyushin IL-76 is seen under cover of darkness as cheap wooden coffins are unloaded before corpses are returned to grieving families for funerals.
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The macabre scene is normally hidden from Russians, and the Putin regime has failed to publicly acknowledge the suspected toll of the war of 300,000-plus killed and maimed.
The giant Russian aircraft has landed in Neryungri, a remote town of 60,000 people in the world’s coldest inhabited region, impoverished Yakutia, seven times zones east of the war zone.
A truck driver is heard speaking, evidently shocked by his task, along with another man named Tolik, to move the bodies to the railway station for transport to the families in far-flung locations in the region, the largest in the Russian Federation.
“We are picking up dead soldiers,” he said.
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“They are all our boys from Yakutsk [the regional capital], 26 men.
“We’ve loaded two trucks, mine and Tolik’s
“[Coffins with] 16 other bodies have already been taken, and another nine [coffins] were loaded into a Kamaz truck.
“We are at Neryungri airport.
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“We are now to transport [the coffins] to the railway to load the boys into train carriages.”
The Soviet era IL-76 is one of the largest long-range transport aircraft operating anywhere in the world.
It is likely the plane was used to deliver more coffins to other locations across Russia’s 11-time zone empire.
Putin has been accused of recruiting a disproportionate number of soldiers from such regions as Yakutia, where wages are low.
Many are from non-Russian ethnic groups.
A new analysis by the BBC Russian Service and Mediazona found evidence of 18 and 19 year olds being sent to the war soon after leaving school.
This is contrary to a pledge made by Putin at the start of the war.
These young conscript soldiers are dying in the war in Ukraine from the first days of their arrival at the front, say investigators.
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Under new laws, 18 year olds can be signed up as contract soldiers.
Among contract soldiers who died between April 2023 and January 2024, 48 were born in 2004, and another five were born in 2005, said the research.
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