Cargo 200 (code name)
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Cargo 200 (Russian: Груз 200, Gruz dvésti) is a military code word used in the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states referring to the transportation of military fatalities.[1][2][3][4] Officially, the term Cargo 200 is military jargon to refer specifically to the corpses of soldiers contained in zinc-lined coffins for air transportation. Unofficially, Cargo 200 is used to refer to all bodies of the dead being transported away from the battlefield, and has also become a euphemism for irretrievable losses of military personnel in a conflict.
Colloquially the abbreviated term may be used in reporting, e.g, "We have one 200th and four 300ths", i.e., one killed and four wounded.
Modern usage
[edit]The term Cargo 200 has received new international attention since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014.[3] Cargo 200 was referenced by the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the name of their 200rf.com website used to publicize Russian personnel killed and captured during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[5][6][7] Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi was nicknamed "General 200" in reference to the term Cargo 200 due to pursuing bloody Soviet-style military tactics which resulted in heavy Ukrainian casualties during the battle of Bakhmut.[8]
Related military code words
[edit]- Cargo 100: Ammunition[9]
- Cargo 300: Wounded[9]
See also
[edit]- Cargo 200, 2007 Russian thriller film by Aleksei Balabanov
- Black Tulip
References
[edit]- ^ Brooke, James (18 October 2011). "Russian Killings of Tajik Migrant Workers — Now at a Level with American Lynchings in the 1930s?". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 9 May 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ ТУРЧЕНКОВА, Мария (3 June 2014). "Груз 200. Продолжение" [Cargo 200. Continued]. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ a b "Ukraine crisis: Russian 'Cargo 200' crossed border - OSCE". BBC News Online. 13 November 2014. Archived from the original on 13 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
- ^ "Місія «Евакуація 200" [Mission "Evacuation 200"]. mil.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). 22 March 2015. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ "Ukraine Launches Website for Russians to Find Killed Soldiers". The Moscow Times. 27 February 2022. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ "Website 200rf.com launched for Russians to find family members captured in killed in action during the invasion of Ukraine". Ukrayinska Pravda. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ "Ukraine launches website to help Russian families find their relatives killed in combat". The Kyiv Independent. 27 February 2022. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ "Zaluzhny is out, the 'butcher' is in". Archived from the original on 9 February 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
- ^ a b Груз Archived 6 June 2025 at the Wayback Machine, an entry in the Большой словарь русских поговорок, Mosco, Олма Медиа Групп, В. М. Мокиенко, Т. Г. Никитина, 2007