Inside Putin’s haunting ‘criminal graveyard’ where murderers and rapists sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder are buried

A MACABRE cemetery has been discovered in Russia, containing former soldiers in President Vladimir Putin's Wagner group who died while fighting in Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of murderers, rapists, robbers, and drug traffickers were released to take up arms against Ukraine after Russia invaded last February.

The criminals were coerced to the battlefield with the promise of full freedom if they stay alive for six months, no matter how serious their conviction. 

It was revealed this week, however, that more than three-quarters of the 38,244 Russian prisoners freed to fight with Wagner group have been killed, wounded or captured, according to .

Earlier this week, Putin hailed his “prisoner army”, and declared Russia "must know - and knows - its heroes”.

Yet the rapidly growing new burial ground at Bakinskaya in Krasnodar region is one of numerous cemeteries across Russia where Wagner fighters are laid to rest in the current war. 

No less than 120 graves are visible there, filled with victims from across Russia, some named, some not. 

Many more burials are expected in the field which only five months ago, was empty, according to Russian activist Vitaly Votanovsky.

It is now filling rapidly with Wagner private military company fighters whose relatives do not claim the remains, or who earlier requested to be buried here, near a church in Goryachiy Klyuch, seen as the private military company’s place of worship.

Putin's crony Yevgeny Prigozhin - an ex-convict who is now the billionaire head of Wagner - confirmed the site was allocated for the burial of its fighters.

He said: "There are graves of those who, for various reasons, wrote in their statement that in case of death, they wanted to be buried near the chapel of the Wagner PMC in Goryachiy Klyuch.

“Since there are no burial places near the chapel itself, with the support of the administration of the Krasnodar region, a plot was allocated in the [nearby village of Bakinskaya]."

Prigozhin visited the gravesite and laid flowers on the grave of soldier Denis Glazkov, who died on December 1, 2022.

A large monument to the fighters has been erected at Goryachiy Klyuch, with plates and personal numbers of fallen fighters. 

The battle of Soledar saw an estimated 10,000 Russian military deaths - mainly from the Wagner group.

The claims that the death toll from private military companies - of which Wagner is the main one - are estimated at over 38,000.