A group of Russian women, whose husbands have been mobilized for the war in Ukraine, demonstrated on Saturday in front of the Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow. The women demand that their husbands be allowed to go home.
On September 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin gave the order for a “partial mobilization” in Russia and soon after, hundreds of thousands of reservists began to be called up to be sent to Ukraine.
On the second anniversary, a group of women went to the Russian Defense Ministry building in Moscow to demonstrate.
Holding placards
In pictures on social media, the women can be seen standing in front of the building and holding placards with the text “Demobilisation”. From the start, around 20 women participated in the action, according to the Russian human rights organization OVD-info.
Some of them said they intended to spend the night at the place.
– We are not going anywhere, a woman can be heard saying in a video clip.
Russian soldiers’ wives from the “Way home” movement have long demanded that their mobilized husbands be allowed to leave Ukraine. But the Russian Ministry of Justice calls the protests illegal and accuses the women of creating a negative image of Russia. This summer, the movement was therefore labeled a “foreign agent”, a designation that in Russia brings to mind spies.
Counter-protesters
Earlier in the day, a group of counter-protesters appeared and started filming the women with their phones. In a video clip, a passerby is heard accusing the women of being paid to protest. Two journalists who came to cover the women’s demonstration were arrested during the day by police but were later released, writes the Russian independent news site Meduza.
At 8 pm in the evening, the police appeared and stopped the action. The women were loaded into a prisoner transport and driven away.