Cargo 200 (, ''Gruz dvésti'') is a military

code word Code word may refer to: * Code word (communication), an element of a standardized code or protocol * Code word (figure of speech), designed to convey a predetermined meaning to a receptive audience, while remaining inconspicuous to others ** Proce ...

used in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the

post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

referring to the transportation of military fatalities. Officially, the term ''Cargo 200'' is military jargon to refer specifically to the

corpses A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a liv ...

of soldiers contained in

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

-lined

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

s 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 A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

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.

Origins

The first appearance of ''Cargo 200'' is unknown, except that it came into use in the mid-1980s during the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic o ...

. The main theory of the term's origin is the Ministry of Defense of the USSR Order No. 200, issued during the on 8 October 1984, coincidentally setting the standardized maximum weight for the air transportation of a deceased soldier's body at . The term saw widespread use in the Soviet military by the late 1980s, spawning the related code words ''Cargo 300'' for the transportation of wounded personnel, and ''Cargo 100'' for the transportation of munitions.

Modern usage

The term ''Cargo 200'' has received new international attention since the start of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

in 2014. 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 On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine () is the professional head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The position was created by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 March 2020, before which the Chief of the General Staff was the c ...

Oleksandr Syrskyi Oleksandr Stanislavovych Syrskyi (; born 26 July 1965) is a Ukrainian military officer. Holding the rank of four-star general, he has served as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine since . Previously, he was the commander o ...

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 The battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern Ukraine campaign, a theatre of the Russian invasion of Uk ...

.Zaluzhny is out, the 'butcher' is in
/ref>

Related military code words

*Cargo 100:

Ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...

Груз
an entry in the ''Большой словарь русских поговорок'', Mosco, Олма Медиа Групп, В. М. Мокиенко, Т. Г. Никитина, 2007 *Cargo 300: Wounded *Cargo 400: Concussed or captured *Cargo 500: Medical supplies. After the start of

it was used to refer to "refusniks" (soldiers who refuse to fight) and deserters

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2025 Code names Military slang and jargon Military of the Soviet Union

Origins

Modern usage

Related military code words

See also

References