Europe

1585 readers

521 users here now

News and information from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in [email protected]. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].

founded 5 months ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Dead Russians revived: There are Russian soldiers in Ukrainian captivity who are considered dead in their homeland. Their relatives have even managed to bury “remains” in closed coffins. (istories.media)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Archived link

Dead Russian revived: There are Russian soldiers in Ukrainian captivity who are considered dead in their homeland. Their relatives have even managed to bury “remains” in closed coffins.

“There was an exchange of 37 for 37, and my son was among them. The Ukrainians took his head (from the helicopter crash site) — it survived the fire thanks to his helmet,” the father of the victim recalls with tears. — “My son was true to his word: they were able to ‘capture’ only his remains.”

In the spring of 2023, the father of Senior Lieutenant Oleg Farniyev gave this interview to the propaganda TV channel Russia Today. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the helicopter with his son, a navigator, was shot down during a combat sortie in April 2022. After that, Farniyev was reported missing for several months.

Farniyev Sr. searched for his son himself and traveled to the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Russian army. “He was informed several times that the remains, presumably those of his son, had been found, but DNA tests disproved it each time,” the RT piece says. Finally, in August 2022, the Defense Ministry handed over the remains to the relatives, posthumously awarding navigator Farniyev the Order of Courage. He was buried in his native land of Ossetia.

And in February 2024, Oleg Farniyev appeared in the published list of prisoners of war (under number 166). As IStories found out, his wife immediately appealed to the Defense Ministry for clarification. She claimed that none of his family members had seen Farniyev’s remains: the coffin was forbidden to be opened, and the results of the DNA tests were not shown to the relatives.

Two months later, instead of explanations and test results, the serviceman’s wife received a poor reply from the Defense Ministry: “According to the records, Oleg Olegovich Farniyev was buried with full military honors. The serviceman fulfilled his military duty with dignity and honor, and made a significant contribution to the approaching victory over the Ukrainian nationalists.”

Mistakes happen everywhere. But Farniyev's case is far from being unique for the Russian army.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Actually, the only motivated person I can think of here are the inheritors. If this was no mistake, the only explanation I can imagine is that government, military, and/ or scientist (whoever did DNA tests) were bribed.

[–] pelya 11 points 3 months ago

It's more of an incompetency and laziness issue. Given how many bodies these lab tech receive each month, they are not performing any actual tests but simply writing whatever results they are asked.