Russia's spending on cemetery expansion has more than doubled since the start of the full-scale invasion

Russia increased spending on cemetery expansion projects to $2.5 million during the two years of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is twice as much as before the war.

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The Moscow Times reported that, according to the official public procurement portal, Russian regions spent more than $2.5 million on cemetery expansion in 2023. This is twice as much as in 2022, and almost six times more than in 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic. And in the first half of 2024, the amount spent has already reached $1.5 million.

For comparison, cemetery expansion projects cost only $432,000 in 2020 and $1.4 million in 2021.

In March, the UK Ministry of Defence reported that Russia lost an average of about 1,000 soldiers every day in February. In February, the Institute for the Study of War said that more Russian soldiers were killed during the capture of Avdiivka than during the 10 years of the Soviet-Afghan war.

The Ukrainian military estimates that up to 47,000 Russians were killed or wounded in the fighting there.

According to demographer Jan Bryd, the conflict in Ukraine is only one of the factors contributing to the expansion of cemeteries. He said that natural causes such as an ageing population, alcohol-related deaths and a rise in the number of deaths among young people have also played a role.

Source: The Moscow Times