Bodies Of Russian Soldiers Lie Unclaimed In Refrigerated Car, Secret Dump Sites

Hundreds of bodies of Russian soldiers are reportedly lying unclaimed inside a refrigerated car in Kyiv. The video of the car shows the bodies clad in uniforms resembling the Russian forces.

The footage, captured by Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera, sheds light on the heavy casualties suffered by the Russians in the war. The report said the team was given "rare access to see the bodies left behind by the Russians as they retreated from Kyiv."

Though Russia has not claimed the bodies, there is little doubt as to who the dead are, as most of them wore the tag of NPF Tekhinkom LLC, a St. Petersburg-based body armor manufacturer. A document retrieved from one of the bodies also proves he was an elite Russian paratrooper.

The video report also shows Russian military chevrons and gold jewelry recovered from the dead. The pieces of jewelry were probably stolen or looted from Ukrainian homes.

"Ukraine treats the dead enemies better than they treated civilians. They will be kept as long as need be. The government will decide because Russia refuses to take them. It doesn’t want to. Each body is proof of a war crime. So if they refuse to take them, Ukraine will bury them at our own cost," Ukraine Army Colonel Volodymyr Liamzin told Al Jazeera.

While Ukraine claims over 26,000 Russians died in the war, Russia has pegged the death toll at 1,300. Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky too has spoken about Russia's attitude toward its soldiers who were taken prisoners or killed.

"We don't want to keep the corpses. We want them to leave. At first, they refused, then gave some other reason. Then they offered us some body bags. Look, it all looks, well... I don't even know... You know, during our lives we all probably saw people pass away - not even people close to us, not family... Look, even when a dog or a cat dies, you don't act like this. It's pretty much like... It's trash bags," Zelensky told reporters.

This comes as Ukraine claims that Russian authorities in Donetsk are tossing the bodies of their dead soldiers in makeshift dump sites. According to Ukraine’s Security Service (SSU), the bodies are thrown into the dump "by the thousands" and their loved ones are charged money to find them. The evidence in this regard was obtained from the intercepted telephone conversations of invaders, claimed SSU.

"It’s not a morgue, it’s a dump. Huge, this… field – sort of a field or a landfill… Fenced, cordoned off, no one is allowed in. And, in short, they bring thousands there. A dump as high as a human," a Russian soldier was reportedly intercepted talking to his wife.

The soldier claims that he learned about this place from an acquaintance who found her brother’s body at the site.