Russian family buys new car with 'coffin money' after soldier dies

Get a brand new Lada if your son dies! Russian TV boasts of the compensation benefits for families of soldiers killed in Ukraine by showing parents with a new car

• Russian soldier Alexei Malov, 31, died in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine
• State TV showed how his parents bought a new car with the ‘coffin money’
• The Kremlin is offering up to £105,000 to the families of dead troops 

Russian state TV has boasted that families of soldiers killed in Ukraine can buy a brand new Lada car with the compensation in a bid to boost its conscript numbers.

Kremlin-backed Rossiya 1 showed how one set of parents decided to splash out with the ‘coffin money’ on a white saloon car from the state-run manufacturers.

Alexei Malov, 31, died in February just three days into the invasion but his mother and father have now received the compensation, with the Kremlin offering up to £105,000 for each dead soldier.

Alexei Malov, 31, died in February just three days into the invasion but his mother and father have now received compensation

Malov’s father then said: ‘In memory of our son we bought a nice new car.’ 

The soldier’s family live in the small village of Vyazovka, 550 miles southeast of Moscow.

The Rossiya 1 report said: ‘Like his grandfathers and great-grandfather he fought against racism.

‘The new Lada was bought with what people call “coffin money” but what’s officially a “lump sum allowance for the family of the deceased”.

‘His father says that Alexei dreamt of having a white car, just like this one.

‘Its first trip is to the ceremony.’ 

The parents decided to splash out with the ‘coffin money’ on a white saloon car from state-run manufacturers

The soldier’s family live in the small village of Vyazovka, 550 miles southeast of Moscow

The couple have another son, Alexander, who was also fighting in Ukraine but he was sent home after Alexei’s death.

Alexander now says he wants to return to the frontline, saying: ‘I’ll do whatever the Motherland orders me to do.’

It comes amid more potential Russian casualties in Ukraine after soldiers were reportedly killed and injured in a mysterious ‘unexplained incident’ at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of Enerhodar where the station is based, said the troops were ‘so scared that they ran around in a panic’, with some now in intensive care in hospital.

The cause of the sudden hysteria is not known, although Putin’s men had been using the power plant to store many of their weapons, including missile systems.

Russian soldiers have been killed and injured in a mysterious ‘unexplained incident’ at the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine

The president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom had warned on Friday that the situation was ‘extremely tense’, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the site.

‘The occupiers bring their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they already shell the other side of the river Dnipro and the territory of Nikopol,’ Petro Kotin said, referring to the city across the water.

‘They physically control the perimeter. The occupiers’ heavy machinery and trucks with weapons and explosives remain on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,’ he said.

According to Mayor Orlov, nine soldiers were taken to the local hospital with varying degrees of severity.

He said: ‘One of them was brought in in a serious condition and has been put in intensive care.

‘Some have died but we cannot name their exact number at the moment.’ 

A Russian serviceman stands guard at the main entrance to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station

He continued: ‘They were so frightened that they ran around the territory of the station in a panic, and blocked two shifts of operational personnel at the plant for a very long time instead of changing shifts as they were supposed to.’

The Zaporizhzhia plant, which creates around 20 per cent of Ukraine’s electricity, was seized by Russian forces on March 4 and they now control the administrative buildings and the station.

It comes as the UK’s Ministry of Defence claimed Russia is increasingly relying on ‘convicts and blacklisted individuals’ to plug gaps in its frontline forces.

With 50,000 Russian troops believed dead, wounded or captured since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin has contracted the Wagner Group, a mercenary firm, to supply soldiers.

But even the group’s resources are running low after fighting in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russia has made territorial gains but at a significant cost. Yesterday the MoD said: ‘The fighting has inflicted heavy casualties on the group.

‘Wagner are lowering recruitment standards, hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals while very limited training is available to new recruits.

Russia is increasingly relying on ‘convicts and blacklisted individuals’ to plug gaps in its frontline forces, the UK’s Ministry of Defence claimed yesterday, as 50,000 of Putin’s troops are believed dead, wounded or captured since the President (pictured) invaded Ukraine

‘This will highly likely impact on the future operational effectiveness of the group and will reduce its value as a prop to the regular Russian forces.’

It comes as a video shows the moment prisoners from a bleak Russian jail are recruited to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The inmates are taken into their jail yard to sign up with Wagner private army to boost Moscow’s fighting force.

Some 300 convicts from the prison in Russia’s impoverished Republic of Adygea opted to be frontline fighters in exchange for release from the penal colony and an amnesty.

The video filmed by an inmate shows prisoners meeting with representatives of Wagner which works closely with the Russian defence ministry and FSB security service.

It comes as a video shows the moment prisoners from a bleak Russian jail are recruited to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine

Critics see the recruitment of prisoners as ‘frontline cannon fodder’ as a sign of desperation by Russia.

A source told prison rights group gulagu.net: ‘It was on 7 July 2022 at Colony N1.

‘Inmates are waiting for a chat with Wagner Group recruiters.

‘About 300 inmates agreed to go.’

On the video, voices are heard saying: ‘F****** hell, so many people.’

This jail has 1,350 convicts including murderers.  

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