Ukraine says that they have 7,000 unclaimed dead Russian soldiers in their morgues which Russia refuses to accept. When the war ends and Russian relatives want answers, how can Putin explain to them what happened?
The SOP is to claim ignorance.

The standard Russian approach is to claim they don’t know what had happened to those soldiers, that they went missing. They could be alive and well, because they emigrated, or have died or any single one of the myriad of possibilities. If you ask too many questions you get some very imposing gentlemen to rough you up a couple dozen times, until you shut up. If you persist a little too far, you fall off a balcony.

That’s how Russia typically deals with the families of their dead veterans. I see no reason for them to stop now.