Satellite pictures capturing the massive expansion of Russian military cemeteries prove the “huge cost” of the Ukraine war for Moscow’s army, according to experts.

The “startling” pictures show cemeteries linked to elite units such as the Guards Airborne Division, the Guards Motorised Division and the Wagner Mercenary group have all grown substantially in size since the invasion began in February 2022.

Although Russia does not provide a death toll for its soldiers, the pictures - provided by Maxar Technologies and obtained by The Sunday Telegraph and National Security News - add weight to Western estimates of significant losses.

Images of just one section of Moscow’s Tula cemetery, for example, show the numbers of graves have roughly quadrupled between October 2021 and April 2023.

The nearby Bogorodskoye cemetery has had a whole new section added during that time, apparently tripling its size.

Both are near Ryazan, in western Russia, where units of the 106th Guards Airborne Division are based, according to Maxar, a private US-based satellite company.

Troops from that division took part in the opening battles of the war in Ukraine and also later fought in operations in the Bakhmut area along with Wagner forces. 

Western intelligence estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 Russian troops could have been killed in the fight for Bakhmut.

‘Losing more than 900 troops a day’

Col Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer and Nato planner, described the images as “startling”.

They show “the huge price Russian conscripts are paying”, he said.

 “I am not surprised at the clear growth in cemeteries near bases as Russia is losing more than 900 troops a day at the moment for minimal territorial gains.

“The Russian losses in the battle for Avdiivka, where over 16,000 of their soldiers died are testament to that.”

Estimates of the number of Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine vary enormously.

A recent study by Mediazona and Meduza, two independent Russian media outlets, suggested it was up to 88,000 as of the end of 2023.

They based their numbers on public obituaries and official inheritance records.

That estimate tallies with the British Ministry of Defence, which estimates that up to 70,000 have died. 

The US thinks the figure could be as high as 120,000, while Ukraine’s president Vlodomyr Zelensky last month suggested it was 180,000. 

Russia does not supply official death tolls.

Around a quarter of Russian soldiers killed are in regular military units, another quarter are newly mobilised troops or volunteers, and the rest are convicts, part of private contractor groups or unknown, according to recent research by The Economist.

“The reality for the Russian people is that the expansion of the size of these cemeteries doesn’t fully reflect the true numbers of Russian dead,” said Col Ingram.

“Many bodies are left where they fell on the battlefield. 

“The recovery and repatriation of Russian dead is not a priority as it keeps the true extent of the casualties away from public gaze and saves the Russian government paying compensation to families.

“This year will likely see casualties from both sides reach the one million in total mark. 

“I should imagine that the cemeteries will either grow in size again or new ones will have to be developed.”

Other cemeteries shown in the images include Blyzhnie cemetery, near Feodosiya, Crimea, and Mikhaylovsk cemetery, near Stavropol, also in Crimea.

Both are associated with the 7th Guards Airborne Division, which has been involved in the Ukraine war since the start.

Troops from the unit took part in the southern Ukrainian offensive and the battles of Kherson and Mykolaiv that month, where they are reported to have suffered heavy losses.

The same unit lost 49 soldiers a single day last year. 

The elite Russian paratroopers were serving with 247th VDV Regimen, part of the 7th Guards Airborne Division, when they were killed in a battle close to Staromayorske, a village in Donetsk.

Russian media reported in March 2022 that the division’s commanding general, Andrei Sukhovetsky, was killed in combat.

Alabino cemetery is linked to units which make up the 2nd Guards Motorised Rifle Division. 

The cemetery appears to have been expanded to  house graves belonging to troops from the division, who have died in the war.

The division took a small part in the northern Ukraine offensive of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in the failed month-long Siege of Chernihiv. 

During the siege in February 2022, over 150 soldiers from the unit were killed and around 300 were captured by Ukrainian forces.

Bakinskaya and Berezovsky cemeteries are linked with the Wagner Group and are believed to contain the graves of many of their dead fighters. 

Both cemeteries have exhibited significant expansion since February 2022. 

Up to 21,000 Wagner fighters are believed to have been killed since the start of the war.