Sanctions Year in Review 2022 – Part II: Russia

KEY POINTS
One of the Rossiya aircraft was filmed being used to transport a deceased soldier to the Russian republic of Tatarstan
Another jet was used to transport Russian soldiers' bodies to the city of Yekaterinburg
Ukraine says that Russia has lost more than 143,600 soldiers since the war began in February 2022
The Russian army is using the air fleet of President Vladimir Putin to transport the bodies of dead soldiers who were killed in the war in Ukraine, according to a report. The presidential air fleet, consisting of 68 jets and helicopters for the Kremlin, is being operated by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot Group. One of the jets, specifically a Tu-134a-3 airliner with the tail number RA-65911, was filmed by state media in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan, returning the body of a dead soldier in March last year. In 2016, local newspapers reported that Putin had visited a neighboring Russian region using a plane with the same tail number. Flight tracking tools used by The Moscow Times' Russian service found that several of the Rossiya aircraft had also crossed to and from Russian regions between January and early February of this year. The outlet noted that often after the flights' arrival in Russian regions, local news would report the funeral of a soldier who died in the war in Ukraine. In one of the cases cited by the outlet, a Rossiya jet with tail number RA-61720 landed in the city of Yekaterinburg on Jan. 23. Reports of a Russian serviceman and a mercenary for the infamous Wagner Group being buried in the city surfaced within the next 24 hours. The plane with RA-61720 number was registered to fly to Ufa in the neighboring republic of Bashkortostan on Jan. 13 . It was the same day Putin arrived in the city to attend the funeral ceremony for Bashkortostan's first president Murtaz Rakhimov. It is not clear where the bodies of dead soldiers are picked up by Rossiya aircraft. However, a relative of one of the slain soldiers who spoke to the outlet said the corpses were transported from a military hospital in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, located less than 100 kilometers from eastern Ukraine. Read more
"While I was there, I saw six large coroner vans that reeked of rot and corpses," the relative told the outlet. "I saw them being unloaded, entire cars of corpses, zinc [coffins] on top of zinc [coffins]. It was a frightening picture for me, even though I work in intensive care and I've seen corpses. But I've never seen so many before." Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February last year, a total of 143,680 military personnel have been killed, including 820 soldiers who were killed over the past day, as per estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Reuters

Russia Uses Putin's Planes To Transport Corpses Of Dead Soldiers From Ukraine: Report

By Danielle Ong
0
Ukrainian servicemen load bodies of killed Russian soldiers to a refrigerated rail car, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, at a compound of a morgue in Kharkiv, Ukraine
The Russian army is using the air fleet of President Vladimir Putin to transport the bodies of dead soldiers who were killed in the war in Ukraine, according to a report. The presidential air fleet, consisting of 68 jets and helicopters for the Kremlin, is being operated by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot Group. One of the jets, specifically a Tu-134a-3 airliner with the tail number RA-65911, was filmed by state media in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan, returning the body of a dead soldier in March last year. In 2016, local newspapers reported that Putin had visited a neighboring Russian region using a plane with the same tail number. Flight tracking tools used by The Moscow Times' Russian service found that several of the Rossiya aircraft had also crossed to and from Russian regions between January and early February of this year. The outlet noted that often after the flights' arrival in Russian regions, local news would report the funeral of a soldier who died in the war in Ukraine. In one of the cases cited by the outlet, a Rossiya jet with tail number RA-61720 landed in the city of Yekaterinburg on Jan. 23. Reports of a Russian serviceman and a mercenary for the infamous Wagner Group being buried in the city surfaced within the next 24 hours. The plane with RA-61720 number was registered to fly to Ufa in the neighboring republic of Bashkortostan on Jan. 13 . It was the same day Putin arrived in the city to attend the funeral ceremony for Bashkortostan's first president Murtaz Rakhimov. It is not clear where the bodies of dead soldiers are picked up by Rossiya aircraft. However, a relative of one of the slain soldiers who spoke to the outlet said the corpses were transported from a military hospital in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, located less than 100 kilometers from eastern Ukraine. "While I was there, I saw six large coroner vans that reeked of rot and corpses," the relative told the outlet. "I saw them being unloaded, entire cars of corpses, zinc [coffins] on top of zinc [coffins]. It was a frightening picture for me, even though I work in intensive care and I've seen corpses. But I've never seen so many before." Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February last year, a total of 143,680 military personnel have been killed, including 820 soldiers who were killed over the past day, as per estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Related Articles

Russia Uses Putin’s Air Fleet to Return Soldiers Killed in Ukraine
A Tu-154 airliner from the Rossiya Airlines Special Flight Detachment. Igor Dvurekov (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Russia’s presidential air fleet is quietly repatriating the bodies of soldiers killed in Ukraine and sending them to local morgues in small numbers to prevent public backlash, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Monday, citing flight tracking data, morgue workers and the soldiers’ relatives. Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot Group, operates 68 jets and helicopters for the Kremlin that include Russia’s equivalent of Air Force One. State media in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan filmed one of the jets, a Tu-134a-3 airliner with the registration number RA-65911, returning the region’s first dead soldier on March 2, 2022. President Vladimir Putin had flown on a plane with the same RA-65911 tail number to a neighboring Russian region in 2016, according to a local newspaper that photographed its landing. Flight tracking tools have spotted several of the Rossiya aircraft, which form the airline’s Special Flight Detachment, crossing to and from the Russian regions between January and early February 2023. The Moscow Times has found a correlation between these flights’ arrivals and local news coverage of soldiers’ funerals that followed. A Rossiya jet with the RA-61720 number landed in the central city of Yekaterinburg on Jan. 23, followed by reports of a serviceman and a Wagner mercenary being buried there in the next 24 hours. tatar-inform.ru
FlightRadar then registered RA-61720 flying to Ufa, the capital of the neighboring republic of Bashkortostan, on Jan. 13, the same day that Putin traveled there. An RA-87972 tail number jet landed in the Tatarstan city of Nizhnekamsk on Jan. 25, with the name A.A. Yangibayev seen on one of 11 zinc coffins caught on video. A week later, Tatar residents posted news of Yangibayev’s funeral on social media. The same pattern of presidential aircraft flights followed by soldiers’ funerals was observed on Jan. 26 in the northwestern regions of Arkhangelsk and Vologda and between Feb. 8-12 in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions. While many Rossiya aircraft depart from Moscow, others turn their transponders on over the Lipetsk region, which is equidistant from Moscow and the Ukrainian border, and the neighboring Tambov region, which is among a handful of Russian territories where wartime flight bans are in effect. It is impossible to establish the exact location where the soldiers’ bodies were picked up. But the slain soldiers’ relatives told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that they were distributed from a military hospital in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, less than 100 kilometers from eastern Ukraine. “While I was there, I saw six large coroner vans that reeked of rot and corpses,” the son of a dead soldier who declined to give his name said of his visit last fall to the Rostov-on-Don hospital to identify his father’s body. “I saw them being unloaded, entire cars of corpses, zinc [coffins] on top of zinc [coffins]. It was a frightening picture for me, even though I work in intensive care and I’ve seen corpses. But I’ve never seen so many before,” he said. The Moscow Times has sent requests for comment to Russia’s office of presidential affairs and the Defense Ministry regarding the findings. Russian military and aviation experts said they had not been aware of the presidential fleet’s involvement in the repatriation flights. An unnamed Defense Ministry source told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that two of its flight detachments are engaged in repatriation flights alongside the delivery of weapons and manpower. Of the 60 of these military aircraft listed by FlightRadar, 46 have been active over the past year. Morgue workers told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that municipal authorities had ordered them to give out no more than one or two bodies to family members per day. “Ours is a small city, so distributing so many dead relatives at once would create panic,” a morgue employee in the Orenburg region told The Moscow Times. “[The authorities] also want to avoid a situation where relatives would crowd the morgue lining up for the dead. There could be fainting spells and scandals. Generally speaking, they decided not to escalate the situation,” the employee said. An independent media tally of fatalities based on open-source funeral reports and other publicly available data places Russia’s military death toll at more than 14,000. The Russian Defense Ministry last reported its death toll in September at under 6,000. Western defense officials say up to 180,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded in the year since they were ordered to invade Ukraine.

Russia Uses Putin’s Air Fleet to Return Soldiers Killed in Ukraine

New On News
Russia’s presidential air fleet is quietly repatriating the bodies of soldiers killed in Ukraine and sending them to local morgues in small numbers to prevent public backlash, The Moscow Times’ Russian service reported Monday, citing flight tracking data, morgue workers and the soldiers’ relatives. Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot Group, operates 68 jets and helicopters for the Kremlin that include Russia’s equivalent of Air Force One. State media in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan filmed one of the jets, a Tu-134a-3 airliner with the registration number RA-65911, returning the region’s first dead soldier on March 2, 2022. President Vladimir Putin had flown on a plane with the same RA-65911 tail number to a neighboring Russian region in 2016, according to a local newspaper that photographed its landing. Flight tracking tools have spotted several of the Rossiya aircraft, which form the airline’s Special Flight Detachment, crossing to and from the Russian regions between January and early February 2023. The Moscow Times has found a correlation between these flights’ arrivals and local news coverage of soldiers’ funerals that followed. A Rossiya jet with the RA-61720 number landed in the central city of Yekaterinburg on Jan. 23, followed by reports of a serviceman and a Wagner mercenary being buried there in the next 24 hours. tatar-inform.ru
FlightRadar then registered RA-61720 flying to Ufa, the capital of the neighboring republic of Bashkortostan, on Jan. 13, the same day that Putin traveled there. An RA-87972 tail number jet landed in the Tatarstan city of Nizhnekamsk on Jan. 25, with the name A.A. Yangibayev seen on one of 11 zinc coffins caught on video. A week later, Tatar residents posted news of Yangibayev’s funeral on social media. The same pattern of presidential aircraft flights followed by soldiers’ funerals was observed on Jan. 26 in the northwestern regions of Arkhangelsk and Vologda and between Feb. 8-12 in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions. While many Rossiya aircraft depart from Moscow, others turn their transponders on over the Lipetsk region, which is equidistant from Moscow and the Ukrainian border, and the neighboring Tambov region, which is among a handful of Russian territories where wartime flight bans are in effect. It is impossible to establish the exact location where the soldiers’ bodies were picked up. But the slain soldiers’ relatives told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that they were distributed from a military hospital in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, less than 100 kilometers from eastern Ukraine. “While I was there, I saw six large coroner vans that reeked of rot and corpses,” the son of a dead soldier who declined to give his name said of his visit last fall to the Rostov-on-Don hospital to identify his father’s body. “I saw them being unloaded, entire cars of corpses, zinc [coffins] on top of zinc [coffins]. It was a frightening picture for me, even though I work in intensive care and I’ve seen corpses. But I’ve never seen so many before,” he said. The Moscow Times has sent requests for comment to Russia’s office of presidential affairs and the Defense Ministry regarding the findings. Russian military and aviation experts said they had not been aware of the presidential fleet’s involvement in the repatriation flights. An unnamed Defense Ministry source told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that two of its flight detachments are engaged in repatriation flights alongside the delivery of weapons and manpower. Of the 60 of these military aircraft listed by FlightRadar, 46 have been active over the past year. Morgue workers told The Moscow Times’ Russian service that municipal authorities had ordered them to give out no more than one or two bodies to family members per day. “Ours is a small city, so distributing so many dead relatives at once would create panic,” a morgue employee in the Orenburg region told The Moscow Times. “[The authorities] also want to avoid a situation where relatives would crowd the morgue lining up for the dead. There could be fainting spells and scandals. Generally speaking, they decided not to escalate the situation,” the employee said. An independent media tally of fatalities based on open-source funeral reports and other publicly available data places Russia’s military death toll at more than 14,000. The Russian Defense Ministry last reported its death toll in September at under 6,000. Western defense officials say up to 180,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded in the year since they were ordered to invade Ukraine.

Ras Al Khaimah International Airport operates in the aviation sector. It offers airline services, cargo terminal facilities, taxiways, airport fire-fighting services, aircraft maintenance facilities, car parking, and more. It was founded in 1976 and is based in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates.

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The `` partnership with Rossiya Airlines represents a significant step forward in the airport 's phased expansion strategy , opening up as it does nine direct flights into and out of Russia , '' said Salem Bin Sultan Al-Qasimi , Chairman of Department of Civil Aviation and Ras Al Khaimah International Airport .

Rossiya Airlines to connect Ras Al Khaimah with nine Russian cities, including Moscow

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Deutsche Lufthansa (FWB: LHA), dba Lufthansa, is a German airline and, when combined with its subsidiaries, also the largest airline in Europe, both in terms of passengers carried and fleet size.

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Rossiya Airlines operates as an airline company. It provides air transportation services for passengers, baggage, and cargo, as well as offers catering and medical services for passengers. It is based in Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.

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