Pictures show how a cemetery of Russian mercenaries expands

A cemetery used by the notorious Russian mercenary group

has grown rapidly in size in recent months, according to interviews and a

analysis of satellite images and video footage.

The expansion of the cemetery is a

evidence of the damage that the invasion of the Ukraine is doing to Wagner, especially to his

.

The expansion coincides with a bloody offensive by Russian soldiers and mercenaries to gain ground in eastern Ukraine.

The US government claims that the casualties on the Wagner battlefield number in the thousands and that

of them are inmates who were recruited to fight in exchange for being released, assuming they survived.

A satellite image captured Tuesday shows some 170 burial plots in an area of ​​the cemetery known to house Wagner fighters, a number that has risen to almost

what was seen in satellite images from just

ago .

Wagner's cemetery is a recent addition to its growing infrastructure inside Russia, where it seeks to position itself as a superior fighting force to the Russian military.

Vitaly Wotanovsky, an activist and former Russian air force officer, first made public the existence of the graves in December, near the group's main training facility in the southwestern town of Molkin.

Wotanovsky, 51, told the Times that he visits cemeteries to document cases of Russians who have died fighting in Ukraine.

The location of the cemetery might have remained unknown had he not been tipped off by local residents that the area was used to bury the unclaimed corpses of Wagner fighters.

Over several visits, he photographed an increasing number of tombstones and uploaded them to his

"Our goal is to show people that war causes death, and it is not somewhere far away or on TV, but here, next to us," Wotanovsky said.

There may be even more dead than are easily visible."

He noted that locals had told him that many of the fighters had most likely been

.

For years, Wagner's mercenaries have kept a low profile while operating abroad, in countries including Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic.

The United Nations and human rights groups accuse the group of attacking civilians and carrying out

But since the start of the war in Ukraine, the group has expanded its public presence with promotional videos and assertions of its own fighting prowess, largely led by the group's public face,

In a video posted in September, Prigozhin hinted at the cemetery's existence while recruiting inmates from the Russian prison system, promising to care for their remains if they were killed in combat.

"Those who don't know where they want to be buried, we bury them near the PMC Wagner chapel," he said.

Ten days after Wotanovsky revealed the location of the cemetery, pro-Kremlin media outlets published several videos showing Prigozhin laying flowers on a grave in the cemetery.

You can also see rows of freshly dug graves, each adorned with wreaths in the shape and colors of

"He works a lot on heroification: now it's a kind of Russian politics: why cling to this life when you can die so heroically?" says Olga Romanova, founder of Russia Behind Bars, a charity that helps prisoners and their families.

"Death is not horrible. What is horrible is the opposite: not dying for the country."

Those images, and the photos of Wotanovsky, also offer clues as to who has been fighting - and dying - for Wagner in recent months.

At least 16 of the names and birth dates seen on the tombstones appeared in online databases of people convicted of crimes in Russia.

Many were probably killed in fighting around the Ukrainian cities of

, where mercenaries and the Russian army have suffered heavy losses in the past four months.

In another video, Prigozhin visited Wagner's chapel, about 13 kilometers from the cemetery.

The images showed the mercenary company emulating the ways in which a country's official army might commemorate its own war dead, with large monuments and murals on well-manicured grounds.

You can also see rows of black walls that contain typical compartments for how cremated remains are buried.

Each compartment has an identification number and a display of the deceased's combat decorations.

The Times identified 21 total walls in the chapel, each containing 42 compartments, suggesting that hundreds of deceased Wagner fighters are buried or, at least, memorialized in the chapel.

It is not clear if all of these fighters died in Ukraine or elsewhere, but the images offer a rare glimpse into the

of Wagner's losses.

On Friday, the White House announced that it would declare Wagner

.

Wagner is already subject to US sanctions, but this new measure would, in part, prohibit Americans from providing money, goods or services to Wagner.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

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