Russia's funeral industry booms amid rising deaths from Ukraine war
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
As Moscow's invasion of Ukraine heads into its fourth summer, Russia's funeral industry is experiencing a sharp and telling boom.
While official combat death statistics are hidden from public view, some Russians have taken to social media to highlight the skyrocketing cost of burial services in a funeral market that is growing fast.
According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the funeral services market in Russia grew by 12.7 percent in the first four months of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year.
Nearly 200 new funeral-related businesses opened in that period with the fastest growth reported in Tatarstan, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg.
The surge comes amid public complaints about rising burial costs since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The price of grave digging, coffin construction, and headstones have all soared.
The cost of a coffin in April increased by 9 percent to roughly $100, and grave digging was up 15 percent to about $150, according to the Russian government statistical office, Rosstat.
Some grieving families of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine have complained that the state's promises of financial support are not being fulfilled.
'I paid for everything myself,' one woman — whose father died in combat near the Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk — said on social media.
'There was no burial service, no death benefits. No one came, not even a representative from the military commissariat or the brigade where he served.'
Despite official claims that the state covers burial expenses, compensation is tightly capped.
A 2024 government decree limits reimbursement for burial services to about $650 in most regions and about $880 in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sevastopol.
Anything beyond these amounts must be paid by the family.
The Telegram channel Funeral Trust, which monitors the sector, estimates that the average cost of a funeral in Russia in 2024 was $750.
According to Western estimates, almost 1 million Russians have been killed or wounded fighting in Ukraine.
As the war continues to claim lives — and as official data remains hidden — the expansion of Russia's funeral industry is one of the clearest indicators of the conflict's toll.
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