Russian Jailed For 14 Years Over Soldiers’ Grave Images Amid Mounting Casualties (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A Russian court has sentenced Nikolai Shcherbakov, 48, to 14 years in a strict penal colony for treason after authorities accused him of photographing Russian soldiers’ graves and sending the images to Ukrainian intelligence services, Worthy News learned Wednesday.

Shcherbakov systematically visited a memorial cemetery from October 2024, secretly photographing and filming military burial sites before sending the information through a messaging service to representatives of Ukrainian security services, according to the Yaroslavl Regional Court.

Russian legal news agency RAPSI, citing the court’s press service, said the regional branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) uncovered and stopped Shcherbakov’s activities. Russian newspaper Kommersant, quoting the regional court and prosecutor’s office, reported he collected information about soldiers killed in the war, including personal data, between October 2024 and August 2025.

The court convicted Shcherbakov of treason and also imposed 18 months of restricted freedom following his prison term. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force and can still be challenged.

It was not immediately clear whether Shcherbakov admitted or denied the allegations.

FIRST KNOWN CONVICTION

Independent Russian regional news service 7×7 — Horizontal Russia described it as Russia’s first known treason conviction specifically involving the photographing of soldiers’ graves, while independent media have reported increasing detentions of people documenting military burial sites.

The case comes as Moscow remains highly sensitive about information concerning Russian military losses in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Independent Russian news service Mediazona, working with the Russian-language service of British broadcaster BBC and volunteers, has identified by name at least 239,354 Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine based on publicly available records, while estimating that the actual number is substantially higher.

Mediazona and Riga-based independent Russian news organization Meduza, using Russian inheritance records to calculate excess mortality among men, have estimated the actual Russian military death toll at more than 350,000.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates an even higher toll. It said Russian forces suffered approximately 1.4 million battlefield casualties — including those killed, wounded and missing — between February 2022 and June 2026.

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DEAD

Of those, CSIS estimated between 400,000 and 450,000 Russian troops were killed, saying that since World War II, no major power had suffered anywhere near that number of casualties or fatalities in a conflict.

With information about mounting casualties spreading, Shcherbakov’s imprisonment also comes amid a broader crackdown on Russians opposing the war or challenging the Kremlin’s narrative about the conflict.

Last month, a Russian court sentenced prominent opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, 63, to 11 years and one month in a penal colony after convicting him on charges of “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces and spreading what authorities described as false information about them.

Russian penal colonies are prison compounds where inmates are typically housed in communal barracks rather than individual cells and may be required to work, a system with roots in the Soviet-era prison and labor camp network.

Shlosberg, deputy chairman of the liberal Yabloko party, rejected the charges and described his prosecution as politically motivated. Yabloko is Russia’s only registered political party openly calling for an end to the war.

WAR DEATHS WARNING

Russia’s Supreme Court has also barred Yabloko from participating in this month’s parliamentary elections.

In his closing statement at his trial, Shlosberg warned that the full extent of Russia’s wartime deaths would eventually become known.

“Sooner or later, the precise and complete death toll — with names included — will be made public, and the entire nation will shudder at this list of martyrs,” he said.

On September 2, Russian authorities detained Lida Moniava, founder of Moscow’s Lighthouse children’s hospice, and charged her with deliberately spreading what authorities call false information about Russian military actions against Ukrainian civilians.

Moniava, a prominent advocate for critically ill children who has publicly called the war a crime that must end, denied the charge. The following day, a Moscow court imposed restrictions on her pending further proceedings, including limits on her movements, communications and social-media use.

DISSENT RESTRICTED

Russian rights group OVD-Info says these are no isolated cases, as more than 1,380 people have faced criminal prosecution for expressing anti-war views since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, with around 350 currently in prison or pre-trial detention.

Russia introduced sweeping censorship laws shortly after its February 2022 invasion, allowing lengthy prison sentences for those convicted of “discrediting” the military or deliberately spreading what authorities deem false information about the war.

Moscow maintains that wartime restrictions and prosecutions are necessary to protect national security and prevent assistance to Ukraine.

Rights groups and Kremlin critics counter that the laws have increasingly been used to silence dissent.

Shcherbakov’s case underscores how even information contained in Russia’s cemeteries has become sensitive as critics accuse the Kremlin of trying to bury the truth about the mounting human cost of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.