BODY COUNT

Russian Morgues Ordered to Keep Military Deaths Under Wraps to Avoid ‘Panic’

Authorities are reportedly determined to prevent any “scandals” caused by crowds of grieving family members lining up at morgues.

Russian morgues have been instructed to limit the number of military dead they hand over to families each day to avoid “panicking” the public about the growing death toll, according to The Moscow Times. “We have a small city, handing over so many dead to their relatives at once means creating a panic,” the news outlet quoted one morgue worker in Orenburg as saying. The worker said he’d received verbal instructions from city health officials, adding that the move would also prevent any “scandals” caused by a crowd of grieving family members lining up at the morgue. In the Republic of North Ossetia, there is an unspoken order for morgues to “hand over no more than two bodies a day,” according to an unnamed official. As of mid-February, Russia lost more than 14,000 people in Ukraine, according to a tally by the independent outlet Mediazona and the BBC using publicly available data.