14:42, 11 June 2005

Numbers exaggerated?

More than 25,000 Russian military men have been killed in action or died of wounds in Chechnya since 1999, according to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers. No official comment has been made on these figures as yet.

There are 700 graves of Russian soldiers and officers in Chechnya, Valentina Melnikov, Secretary-in-Office of the Committee and Chairman of the United People's Party of Soldiers' Mothers, told Caucasian Knot. "There are maps where these graves are marked and there is a federal law that says funds must be allocated to search for and exhume our children. All this is assigned to the command of the 58th army, but nothing is carried out," Melnikov emphasised.

The Russian Defence Ministry, Federal Security Service and Internal Affairs Ministry which is currently responsible for the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya just called the above figure "exaggerated."