Vladimir Putin has been condemned for attending the funeral of another dictator while neglecting tens of thousands killed in his war with Ukraine.
Video footage has emerged which showed the Kremlin leader, 70, flying to oil-rich Ufa to pay his respects to Murtaza Rakhimov, ex-president of oil-rich Russian republic Bashkortostan, who died aged 88.
It came as an emotive picture emerged of Russian mobilised troops packed into a makeshift barracks seconds before they were hit by a Ukrainian missile.
Russia has failed to even acknowledge how many died in this Makiivka strike, or their names, but it is likely the worst toll in a single incident of his disastrous war in Ukraine, with up to 400 killed.
Yet Putin has not even offered condolences to the families of the dead in Makiivka, where Russian commanders left troops as “sitting ducks” in a vocational school vulnerable to a Ukrainian attack.
Putin’s former aide and speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov posted: "It would make sense for Putin to participate in the funerals of the mobilised who died in Makiivka.
“Or those whose bodies are strewn across the approaches to Bakhmut.
“But, no, he preferred to fly to Ufa for the farewell ceremony for the deceased…dictator. Soul mates.”
As he met current Ufa leader Radiy Habirov, Putin made clear they would be separated by social distancing, the latest sign of acute concern over the Kremlin leader’s health.
“Sadly we will have to work at a distance,” he said.
The pair sat at separate ends of a long table.
The haunting photograph of dozens of mobilised men in Makiivka moments before their death was taken just ahead of midnight on December 31, as Putin made his annual New Year's address to the nation.
A video at the time showed a woman screaming and running in from her balcony as the missile hit, with Putin speaking on a smartphone screen.
Moscow has admitted to 89 dead but refuses to update the count, claiming the details of the fatalities could be used by “foreign intelligence” for “provocative measures”.
This silence is despite demands from relatives.
A similar veil of secrecy was thrown over the loss of sailors when Black Sea flagship Moskva was sunk by a Ukrainian missile in April.
Osint Georgia channel identified two men among the Russians in the tragic picture.
One Nikolay Mazur, 32, from Tolyatti, is known to have died in the HIMARS missile strike.
Vitaly Kondratyev, 41, from the same city, in Samara region, survived and is in hospital in St Petersburg.
“My husband, slowly but surely is on the mend,” posted his wife Anastasia Timofeeva, 30.
“Thank you for the kind words, prayers and sympathy.”
Putin’s presence at the funeral of Rakhimov and eulogising of the dead regional boss, came despite the Kremlin leader earlier ousting the former Soviet apparatchik amid claims of corruption and vote rigging.
The Russian President said of Murtaza Rakhimov: "We had good relations."
