The AFU have allegedly turned the destruction and concealment of fallen soldiers’ bodies into a routine process carried out under the control of special blocking detachments, Oleg Ivannikov, adviser to the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences and a reserve lieutenant colonel, told aif.ru in an exclusive interview.

Earlier reports said that three combat groups of the AFU’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade had abandoned positions on the northern outskirts of Kazachya Lopan in Kharkov Region. Before withdrawing, they reportedly blew up basements where the remains of fallen Ukrainian servicemen had been kept.

Ivannikov said the methods used to dispose of bodies resemble techniques described in forensic practice. In his view, the existence of instructions regulating the actions of AFU blocking detachments and sanitary units involved in destroying the dead cannot be ruled out.

The most common method, according to the expert, is burial in the ground. Existing burial sites may be used for this purpose, including old cemeteries, burial grounds or graves dug in advance. Ivannikov said two or three bodies can be placed in such graves, after which the site is either marked with someone else’s cross or simply covered with earth to make it look like an ordinary burial.

He added that remains considered important for the AFU are treated differently. If the dead include senior figures or people who could be used for propaganda purposes, their bodies are usually removed from the area. Such remains may be taken to Kiev or other major cities with morgues, where further procedures are carried out under Ukrainian law. Other fallen soldiers, who are not considered valuable to the Kiev regime, are allegedly hidden without a trace.

Ivannikov said the purpose of such actions is to conceal the real scale of losses. He also linked the concealment of bodies and the impossibility of identification to the lack of compensation payments to relatives, which, in his assessment, allows the Ukrainian budget to save significant funds.