Russia-Ukraine Flash Report for 4-13-22 09:30 PDT: Mobile Crematoriums? (Patreon)

We haven't discussed the accusations that mobile crematoriums are being used in Mariupol to hide war crimes because we've been researching the accusation.

Before the war started, still images and videos circulated, accusing Russia of staging the equipment. The theory? The mobile crematorium would be used to hide the number of soldiers killed.

That claim was rooted in some fact (as is all good disinformation). The pictures and videos used, including by journalists and editorial approval, were from 2015 in the Donbas. There is significant evidence Russia did deploy several mobile crematoriums for 73 days to dispose of Russia-backed militia and Russian military corpses in 2015.

That video is linked to this Flash Report. Additionally, there was a still image that may have come from this same video on the company's website from 2013. That image is now gone, and we cannot verify the veracity of that report.

The company has another video on YouTube that shows a semi-stationary version that appears to be based on the same technology.

The video does show, with respect, parts of human remains in the chamber, so viewer discretion is advised.

Crematorium operation 

The manufacturer says the mobile crematorium can process eight to ten corpses a day. To create a scalable operation, you would need at least a dozen, and even then, that likely isn't enough. If the Ukrainian accusations of 20,000 dead in Mariupol are correct, 12 units running continuously will take 166 days to process that many corpses. If the number of dead is half of that, you still need three months.

A few days ago, we received pictures of a tunnel lined with corpses. The claim was this photo was taken at the cremation site. The hallway was the final staging place, and the cremations were happening at the end of the tunnel - which was heavily over-exposed.

That's not proof, but a wide tunnel with corpses lined down the side is a red flag, all on its own crematoriums or not. Why are these bodies there, why have they been placed with some care, and what will happen to them? Or were they simply put in this tunnel as a temporary resting place? Or is this a photo that can even be attributed to present-day Mariupol? 

Today, the Ukraine intelligence service attached a number to the mobile crematoriums in place - 13.

Ukraine Intelligence Service 

What they released is still not evidence, and it is essential to note that they used the same photo pulled from the 2015 video (or possibly the 2013 promotional image). 

It is a concerning development. There is visual proof of a filtration camp in Manhush, 20 kilometers west of Mariupol, where thousands of residents have been processed. Some are moved to Russia, and others are forced into detention. We covered this in a SITREP, and substantial evidence was provided.

We have no information on location nor visual proof. There wasn't undeniable proof of crematoriums in Nazi concentration camps until liberation. The German people didn't believe it until they were forced to march through the camps and witness the atrocities for themselves - and even then - some still did not believe. 

Treblinka was one of the most infamous Nazi concentration camps of World War II. In two years, 925,000 Jews were exterminated. That's roughly 1,250 people a day. That's industrial-grade slaughter, and even then, Germany found it extremely difficult to process the accumulating corpses.

If there is an ongoing operation in Mariupol or a suburb that is 10% to 15% of the scale of Treblinka, that is highly concerning that these reports have weight.