Russia Plans Europe’s Biggest Crematorium, Built for 240 Daily Cremations as War Casualties Mount

Russian authorities in St. Petersburg are moving ahead with a major expansion of the city’s only crematorium, a project that would make it the largest such facility in Europe, The Moscow Times reported on September 30.

The decision comes as Russia faces what Western intelligence agencies have described as record battlefield losses in Ukraine—the heaviest since World War II.

The plan appears in public procurement documents. The design phase alone has already cost 207 million rubles (about $2.2 million), though no timeline or full implementation budget has been released.

Under the project, the crematorium will add six new Czech-made Tabo furnaces, bringing the total to 20, and boosting capacity to as many as 240 cremations per day. Officials also plan to install two cremulators, machines that process human remains into fine ash after cremation.

The expansion goes far beyond equipment upgrades. Blueprints call for enlarging the main building, which opened in 1973, and constructing an additional cremation hall. More refrigeration chambers will be purchased to store bodies, while several new ceremonial halls are to be fitted with hydraulic lifts for coffins and updated skylights.

Other improvements include a “one-stop” service center for funeral arrangements, reconstruction of the complex’s utilities, and new security features.

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War in Ukraine

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Entry points to the 82,000-square-meter grounds—which already house garages, warehouses, and even two swimming pools—will be equipped with checkpoints where coffins can be scanned by X-ray. Plans also include fountains at the entrance.

The St. Petersburg crematorium is the only such facility not only in the city but across the broader Leningrad, Novgorod, and Pskov regions, as well as Karelia. In 2023, it handled nearly 42,000 cremations, or 67% of all burials in St. Petersburg.

The expansion comes against the backdrop of staggering losses in Ukraine. According to estimates, the Ukrainian General Staff on the morning of September 26, 2025, Russian combat losses in the full-scale invasion that began on February 24, 2022, placing total personnel losses at about 1,106,430.

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