Russia's spending on cemetery expansion more than doubled since the start of its invasion of Ukraine: report

• Russia is spending over twice as much on expanding its cemeteries than in 2020, according to the Moscow Times.
• Thousands of Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine, in part due to mass deployment and attrition.

Russia more than doubled spending on cemetery expansion projects during the first two years of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine compared to the two years preceding it, according to The Moscow Times.

The outlet cited data from the Kremlin's own official state procurement portal.

It reported that Russian regions spent over $2.5 million on cemetery expansion in 2023, and around $1.3 million in 2022, for a total of about $3.8 million.

In the first half of 2024, they spent a combined $1.5 million, it said.

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

Russia has suffered mounting deaths since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The UK's Ministry of Defence reported in March that Russia averaged nearly 1,000 casualties a day in February, which included both killed and wounded soldiers, likely due to Russia's attritional warfare.

Last year, independent Russian outlets Important Stories and the Conflict Intelligence Team estimated that life expectancy on the battlefield for Russian soldiers was about four and a half months.

In February, the Institute for the Study of War said more Russian soldiers had probably died seizing the town of Avdiivka than in the 10-year Soviet-Afghan war.

Ukrainian military officials estimated that up to 47,000 Russians were killed or injured in the fighting there.

And in an intelligence update released late last year, the UK MOD estimated Russia had likely suffered up to 290,000 soldiers killed or wounded since the conflict began.

Satellite imagery of Russian gravesites from Maxar Technologies, a private US-based satellite company, shared with Business Insider in February show new grids of gravesites appearing over the course of the war.

However, according to demographer Yan Bride, the conflict in Ukraine is just one of the factors contributing to the expansion of cemeteries.

Bride told The Moscow Times that natural causes like an aging population, alcohol-related deaths, and a growing number of deaths among young people, have also played a role.

"The intensification of deaths at younger ages has also led to a growing demand for funeral services to create new territories," he said.