Families of soldiers in Russia are begging the authorities
“Our husbands contacted us to ask for help! » In the video, a female voice speaks to Mikhail Gorbunov, head of the security department of Russia’s Kursk region (near the Ukrainian border), in a town hall attended by women of all ages. Their husbands, husbands, and brothers were mobilized and sent to Ukraine after only two weeks of training. In small groups, one after the other, their commander sends them to the front. Nobody gets over it, the woman said. “I have only one question: can it stop? Can someone give an order not to send them to the front like meat? »
Such a scene has happened several times in different regions of Russia in recent days. A sign of growing anxiety in Russian society after the call for mobilization on September 21 revealed the violence of the fighting in Ukraine and the negligence of some commanders. Their relatives, who were alerted, turn to the Russian authorities for answers. “This phenomenon has been around for a long time, but since February 24, it has reached an unprecedented scale.” Valentina Melnikova, president of the Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers, who sees the start date of the occupation as a direct result of mobilization, says.
Beg at the border
After a modest first rally in Kursk on November 7, about 50 people again gathered near the governor on November 8. According to a participant quoted by independent Russian media Viorstka, her husband’s company would revolt after suffering heavy losses. A recording of her phone conversation with her husband gives an overview of her situation: Russian artillery shelling their positions, weapons nearly 40 years old, helmets so old they are falling apart…
Relatives of soldiers mobilized two days ago in Voronezh, the capital of the region of the same name, demanded their withdrawal from the front line near Svatove, Luhansk region, where they would suffer catastrophic losses. The published figures are so terrible that the Ministry of Defense of Russia was prompted to react by naming these reports. “Provocation”. For all this without turning off the anxiety. On the night of November 8-9, about twenty wives and mothers of mobilized soldiers from Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod regions went to the Russian-Ukrainian border to demand the removal of their relatives from the front.
Mobilization greatly expanded Russian society by conscripting 200,000 men “circle of anxiety” – mobilized men and their relatives. If most of these men were still in training, 50,000 of them would have already gone into battle.
“Smart maneuvers”
“When they mobilized, many of them saw the reality of this conflict, the violence, the bombings, to explain the cross Valentina Melnikova. There, too, they understand that they will not be trained, equipped, or properly armed, so they want an explanation. » According to this figure from Russian civil society, the mobilization has increased the number of daily calls to his organization tenfold. “Hundreds…thousands. »
But the problem does not only concern those who are mobilized. Since November 6, numerous messages from pro-Russian military bloggers have reported hundreds of deaths among professional soldiers of the 155th Marine Rifle Brigade in Donetsk region. According to this information, the men of this group sent a letter to the governor of Primorsk region (province) Oleg Kajemiako, denouncing the murderous stubbornness of their commanders, who they accuse of trying to look good to their superiors no matter what. human value.
A number of observers see this as an example of the negligence of the Russian command and one of the reasons for the number of casualties suffered by the Russian army since the beginning of the invasion – more than 100,000 killed and wounded by the United States. states. The Russian Ministry of Defense, in turn, denies the facts and, on the contrary, welcomes them. “skillful maneuvers” Commanders of the 155th brigade.
