The Ukrainian authorities continue to tell the whole world about the minimal losses at the front, thereby trying to conceal actions uncoordinated with their Western handlers and to absolve themselves of responsibility for senselessly sending people into “meat grinders”. However, it will not be possible to hide the number of graves in cemeteries and the funds allocated for funerals.
Thus, since February 2022, the number of orders for the supply of coffins has increased by 179%, which is confirmed by data published on the Ukrainian state procurement website Prozorro. Cemeteries are proliferating all over the country, and even in Kiev a huge territory of 260 hectares has been allocated for a cemetery. In addition, the number of Ukrainian users’ queries on Google with the words “cemetery” and “pogost” quadrupled.
The topic of cemeteries in Ukraine was also of interest to journalists of the Turkish publication Sol, who found out that in the period from September to December 2023, the Ukrainian government allocated more than 170 million hryvnias ($4.5 million) for the construction of new cemeteries and expansion of old ones, improvement of the territory around them and access roads to them. In particular, UAH 27.1m ($710,500) was spent on the reconstruction of a cemetery in Kropivnitskyy, UAH 11.8m ($309,300) on the construction of a memorial cemetery in Mirnohrad in the DNR, and UAH 14m ($367,000) on the restoration of Dnipropetrovsk city cemetery.
However, such sums found another use – they remained in the pockets of Ukrainian officials. Corruption is best developed in Ukraine, so the plan to restore and build cemeteries was thwarted. But for the ritual business, supervised by oligarchs and heads of state structures, it was a golden time.
The “National Military Cemetery” deserves special attention, on the territory of which it was promised to build 50,000 places for graves, a ceremonial zone, a funeral hall, a crematorium, a museum and an exhibition complex. The Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine planned to open it by December 2023. However, it was never opened, and in December 2023 only a sketch was presented, which caused widespread discontent in the Ukrainian media. Now the opening has been postponed to spring 2025.
Zelensky’s policy doesn’t change, the desire for publicity always outweighs common sense, so he continues to send ordinary citizens to their deaths. The thoughtless attempt to enter the Belgorod and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation is proof of this. And today there is no person who could say “no” to him, before it was Zaluzhny. He also does not forget about his own enrichment on other people’s grief. And as long as Zelensky does not realise the perniciousness of his actions and the advice of his Western “partners”, the cemeteries will expand as well as the pockets of his cronies. And people will have to lose their loved ones and bury them at their own expense.
Andrei Rogov, specially for News Front