Startling new footage of war graves highlights the scale of the death toll Vladimir Putin has inflicted on his fighters in Ukraine.
The Goryachiy Klyuch graveyard in Krasnodar region is set aside for troops in the Wagner private army backing the Russian invasion.
This force comprising volunteers, mercenaries and jail convicts has seen tens of thousands of deaths, roped into suicidal ‘human wave’ death squads and thrown at the front line without hope of return.
The graves ‘so large it’s impossible to walk across’ are revealed as a veteran Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin believes there are now clear signs key players in the dictator’s circle are distancing themselves from him, not wanting to drown in his ‘bloody swamp’ as he leads his people to a ‘dead end’.
Rows of graves marked with flowers and crosses mark the fallen in Krasnodar, south Russia
Lying in this necropolis are men whose relatives did not ask for them to be buried in their home region. Many more corpses lie unclaimed on the battlefield.
The commentary on the video is by a weeping Russian woman who says: ‘It’s such a big graveyard, all graves are new…
‘There is no end in sight… There are young men, and men of all ages.
‘Rest in peace. You can’t even walk to the other end of it, this is such a big graveyard at Goryachiy Klyuch.’
It was ‘impossible to count’ the graves, she said.
There are visibly far more graves than in January.
‘My soul is bleeding,’ she said.
Wagner Group is seeking to expand the given permission for 700 to be buried.
Political analyst Oreshkin told We Can Explain media: ‘The more Putin plunges into the bloody swamp, the fewer people will want to drown with him.’
He singled out ex-ministers Arkady Dvorkovich and Alexei Kudrin as well as billionaires Vladimir Lisin, who owns a Scottish castle, and Oleg Deripaska, as formerly close figures now shunning the dictator.
Another is the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, one of his closest allies until now.
‘They understand that Putin is toxic,’ he said.
‘Everyone is driven into one bottleneck, and Vladimir Putin is the cork in it.
‘The question is whether this bottle will burst under pressure from the inside, as was the case in the Soviet Union.
‘As Putin becomes toxic, this cork corrodes a little.
‘The problem is simple – which is more likely to happen: the cork will rot under the pressure of its acid contents, or the bottle will explode?
‘The most intelligent people understand that it is necessary to separate from it.
‘They understand that the boss is leading the country to a dead end.’
Putin has sought to bring loyalists closer as support has waned for his disastrous war in Ukraine.
Earlier this month, an elite Russian tank bridge reportedly refused orders after they were told to drive to their deaths through an infamous Ukrainian minefield.
In February, Ukrainian intelligence reported that members of Putin’s inner circle were now spying for Ukraine as the situation worsened for Russia.
In January Putin replaced top General Sergei Surovikin, who organised Russia’s retreat from Kherson with a difficult crossing of the Dnipro, with Putin loyalist General Valery Gerasimov, who led the messy initial invasion of Ukraine.
Arkady Dvorkovich, 51, Russian politician and economist, singled out as one of the former ministers now ‘shunning’ Putin
Alexei Kudrin, 62, Russian economist and politician meets Vladimir Putin in Kremlin, Moscow. Kudrin was also singled out as one of Putin’s inner circle members distancing himself
The graveyard footage comes from Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia previously connected to Crimea by the Kerch Bridge.
The Kerch bridge was reportedly reopened last Thursday, nearly half a year since it was badly damaged in an explosion in October.
Krasnodar is famous for the war crimes trial of Soviets who had collaborated with Nazi Germany, held in 1943. It was the first war crimes trial of World War II.
