Rostov-on-Don: authorities deny existence of mass graves of rebels in Northern Cemetery

On March 30, the Ukrainian media posted the first reports on unmarked graves in Rostov-on-Don. According to the "New Region", bodies of Russian militiamen killed in Donbas are massively buried in Rostov-on-Don.

Most of the graves are marked with signs "UM" and "UW", probably meaning "unidentified man" and "unidentified woman"; meanwhile, at most of the graves, the dates of deaths are indicated as summer and autumn of 2014, and the age of the buried people are 20-40 years old, the "New Region" reports.

Today, the other Ukrainian portal "Joinfo.ua" quotes an anonymous official of the authorities of the Russian region, who allegedly said that "bodies of perished people can be buried in the local cemeteries... only if death was recorded in Rostov".

Since people wounded in Donbas were often sent to Rostov-on-Don for medical treatment, then, bodies of militiamen, who were transported with serious injuries and who did not survive, could be buried in the local cemetery, the Ukrainian portal concludes.

When commenting on the reports of the Ukrainian side, Valery Zykov, the head of the administration of the city cemeteries in Rostov-on-Don, said that those graves buried unidentified citizens, whose age ranged from 30 to 80 years old, the "Gazeta.ru" reported on April 1.

"We would never allow the situation when any bodies would be brought, then secretly dumped and buried. I would have been imprisoned for that long time ago. I will never agree to bury bodies of rebels or of someone wrong..." Valery Zykov has stressed.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.