Vladimir Putin has ordered a batch of at least 21 new mobile crematoriums from China amid expectations of huge new Russian war losses, it is claimed.
The aim is to deploy them with the armed forces and hide the scale of deaths of mobilised troops from the public, according to a report.
Telegram channel General SVR warns that the Kremlin is ready for its toll of “irretrievable losses” in the war to rise to 220,000 by 1 May.
A video shows Russian-made mobile crematoriums of the kind already reportedly deployed by the army.
“Twenty-one mobile crematoriums have been ordered by the Russian leadership in China,” said the channel.
“Putin has been informed that the order is ready and will be delivered to Russia via third countries in the near future.”
It claimed that the Russian dictator "is not embarrassed by the colossal losses” from the war he inflicted on Europe - but the scale is “disturbing” to ordinary people.
“As a result, according to the president, the losses must be ‘smeared over time’, and the crematoriums have been ordered for this.”
They are allegedly to be used to dispose of the corpses of mobilised troops killed in the war.
Putin is long accused of using ill-equipped and badly trained draftees, often recruited from impoverished Russian regions, as “cannon fodder”, positioned on the frontline to avoid significant losses among his regular army.
It comes amid a report from VChK-OGPU Telegram channel that out of 270 prisoners recruited as Putin fighters from a penal colony in Bashkortostan region, only 30 are still alive.
A source said this “very accurately reflects the number of prisoners' losses - a little more than 10 per cent survive”.
As many as 40,000 prisoners have been recruited by Wagner private army, run by Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin in collusion with the GRU Russian military intelligence agency.
Pictures emerged of one of numerous graveyards where these dead fighters have been buried.
Billionaire Prigozhin is stressing that many inmates recruited to fight for Putin are surviving six months - at which point they qualify for a pardon and see their convictions and remaining sentence wiped, even for murder or rape.
A new video shows Prigozhin - nicknamed Putin’s chef and himself a former convict - bidding farewell to convicts who now qualify for release in Karelia.
He told the first prisoners to be freed: “Don't drink too much, don't use drugs, don't rape women, don't create trouble.
“The police should treat you with respect.”
In his latest farewell to fighters who stayed alive at the front-line for six months, he said: “For 180 days you have worked the right way.
“All of you have shown courage and heroism. Each of you has gone through what your fathers and grandfathers did not go through…
“You guys have been through, blood, earth, sh** and sugar. It's been hard - and very hard. Now you go home…
“If you have no home, we have rented hotel rooms for you…”
He told them: “Remember as much as possible not to go back to prison…. Not everyone will succeed…
“You've got the money, you've got the medals. You had so much adrenaline that it will be enough for your great-grandchildren…
“I won't keep you, everybody wants to go home. Boys, good luck.”
Estimates on current Russian war losses vary significantly with the highest suggesting an overall toll of 145,000 among regular troops and private military companies, as well as national guards and the security services.
