On this graveyard in Murmansk rest 165 warriors killed in Ukraine

A recent visitor to the main city graveyard in Murmansk counted 165 graves of men killed in Ukraine. Most of them were aged between 20-30 years, Violetta Grudina reports on her Telegram channel.

Grudina is a local activist and politician that now lives in exile. A local in Murmansk sent her the photos. They show numerous wreaths in the Russian tricolour, grave stones and crosses. Several of the flags have the insignia of the Naval Infantry and the FSB Border Guard.

The main Murmansk city graveyard has more than 160 new graves of men killed in Ukraine. Photo: Violetta Grudina on VK

The graveyard was recently expanded and a new section is now reportedly assigned for men from the Armed Forces.

The graveyard is one of several in the City of Murmansk and one of many in the Kola Peninsula. Other cemeteries across the far northern region also have a big number of graves for recently killed young men.

In Zapolyarny, the town located near the border to Norway and Finland, new graves of fallen soldiers are now regularly added to local cemetery. Among the locals buried on site is Mikael Aliev, a 27-year old man that was killed in June 2023.

Aliev was an active boxer and worked at the local nickel plant.

Mikael Aliev from Zapolyarny was a lover of boxing and weaponry. He was killed in June 2023. Photo: local VK page

It is unknown how many men from Murmansk region that have been killed in Ukraine. The Barents Observer has the names of almost 400 killed warriors.

Most likely, they constitute only a part of the actual death figure. A big number of fallen men still lies on battlefields of Ukraine and might never be accounted for.