Russian soldiers' wives report body bags returning from Ukraine

Several dozen women gathered yesterday outside a military base in central Russia to demand Moscow come clean about where their husbands are, after reports of secret funerals for soldiers clandestinely sent to Ukraine.

The young women - mostly in their 20s, a few with small children - huddled outside a base for paratroopers in Kostroma.

Some 350 soldiers from the city north of Moscow were sent on military drills to the border with Ukraine and then went incommunicado, said one of the women, 26-year-old Valeria Sokolova.

Several of the soldiers had apparently been returned in pine boxes, she said, adding that about 15 wounded soldiers were also flown back earlier this week.

"Cargo-200 arrived yesterday," Sokolova said, citing military officials and using the Russian military term for body bags. She said her husband's name was not on the list of the dead or wounded.