Concerned relatives of Russian soldiers traveled (you switch to another service) in mid-November to the base in the city of Valuik, located on the border with Ukraine.
The wives and mothers of the reservists had found out that men called up for regional defense had ended up fighting in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.
The relatives demanded from the military leadership that the men sent to the Svatove front line in Luhansk be brought back to Russia.
Some of the relatives threatened to fetch the men from Svatove themselves if the army did not agree to their demand.
In Starobilk, Ukraine, about 60 kilometers southeast of the Svatove front, the relatives found starving Russian soldiers. The men had retreated against the orders of their Russian commanders and had been left in the forest without food.
The men had told their relatives that they were sent to fight without proper equipment and training.
According to the women, the Russian army also treated reservists forced to the front very cruelly. Among other things, the commanders beat them.
– Theirs [venäläissotilaiden] they are killed by their own commanders, not Ukrainians. Our sons were brought there as playthings and to be tortured, said a woman who arrived in Starobilik to the independent Dozd TV channel (you switch to another service) with the video obtained.
Video messages from worried mothers
Recently, video messages from worried mothers and wives have been published on numerous channels of the messaging service Telegram. In their messages, the women have shared detailed information about the conditions of Russian soldiers and the discretion of the authorities in connection with recruitment.
Many describe in their messages that reservists called to arms are mere cannon fodder for the Russian army.
In this story, publishes quotes from messages published on Telegram. has not been able to confirm the accuracy of the women’s stories.
The plight of Russian women has also been reported, for example local Russians (you switch to another service) and Ukrainian media (switch to another service)considered independent Russian media (you will switch to another service) and British Broadcasting Corporation BBC (switch to another service).
Many say they appealed to the military’s regional service offices, the court, the regional administration, or even the president of Russia to Vladimir Putinbut the reception has been dismissive.
According to relatives, the military authorities transfer responsibility to each other and the governors avoid the mothers and wives who are complaining.
– I got to the speeches of the deputy director of the military unit. He told me, using very ugly language, that the army does not owe anything to anyone, he said in your video message (you will switch to another service) Mother of a 29-year-old reservist Milyasha Vagapova.
Many are deeply disappointed with the authorities, because even the law does not guarantee that the rights of their relatives will be fulfilled.
For wives and mothers has survived (you switch to another service)that after enlistment the men have been pressured to sign contracts that would make them professional soldiers.
Penalties may have followed refusal.
Of some according to women (you will switch to another service) men who have only served as conscripts have been attached to the ranks of professional soldiers, even if they have no combat experience whatsoever.
There is no exact information on how many reservists have been sent to eastern Ukraine to fight without training and proper equipment.
Getting men out of the army has also proven difficult due to the authorities’ unwillingness to cooperate.
– The only way I can help my husband is by telling things publicly. I have no idea where else to get help, says (you switch to another service) Elena Loginova.
According to Loginova, her husband’s serious health problems were ignored and he was found fit for the army at the end of a fifteen-minute health check.
It is almost impossible to get an adjustment to the suitability decision. According to relatives, soldiers have also been prevented from telling about their health.
Official Russia: Conscripts are trained and equipped
According to the Russian army, the men recruited in connection with the launch of the movement have not been sent to the front in Ukraine.
Russian Ministry of Defense told in November (you switch to another service), that it takes 4–5 months to train reservists for combat troops. During that time, they will be equipped with winter clothes and equipment.
Several mothers and women say (you switch to another service) having heard a different story from the men.
The equipment has been inadequate and not everyone has been given, for example, winter equipment.
Among other things relatives of soldiers (you transfer to another service) From the town of Serov, located east of the Urals, they tell the Russian ombudsman in a video they recorded that the men on the front are given raw potatoes for food and one and a half liters of water to drink every two days.
Women’s stories are also supported by material circulating online about the conditions of Russian soldiers.
For example, the Telegram channel Astra (you switch to another service) published a video showing that the reservists in the garrisons stay in tents because there is no room for them in the barracks. Astra calls itself a group of independent Russian journalists.
Britain too military intelligence has confirmed (you will transfer to another service)that the commands of Russian reservists are characterized by uncertainty about serviceability, insufficient training and equipment, and assignment to extremely grueling combat missions.
Russian women are organizing
Horror stories about the inhumane conditions of Russian soldiers have spread across the country quickly, thanks in part to Telegram.
Now Telegram has also become an important channel for organizing women.
In mid-November, 20 disappointed mothers traveled to the front of the military commissariat building in the St. Petersburg region to get to the authorities’ speeches. Mothers took turns on duty in front of the commissariat with protest posters in the center of St. Petersburg.
The women demanded that their sons and husbands not be sent to Ukraine. Local media Fontanka and Radio Free Europe (switch to another service).
– I was told that I should not worry and that my son would only be sent to education. In the evening I was told that he has been sent to Ukraine. The commander reassured them and said that they would not be sent “where they would be shot”, described the mother of the 20-year-old soldier to Radio Free Europe Olga Tsukanova during the rapture.
November 16 ladies reported (you switch to another service) that they had organized themselves as the Council of Mothers and Wives.
reached out to the group’s leader, Olga Tsukanova, for an interview, but did not receive a response.
The Telegram channel of the Council of Mothers and Wives, led by Tsukanova, has 10,000 followers.
The organization is not against the war, at least openly. It demands the improvement of soldiers’ conditions and peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons.
According to the organization, it has representatives all over Russia and declares that it supports the re-establishment of the Soviet Union.
Researcher: Good ruler, bad lackey
Concerned wives and mothers across Russia have organized into groups that have posted video messages addressed to President Putin on Telegram.
Several messages appeal to Putin to sort out the chaos in the Russian army.
Investigator Kristiina Silvan The foreign policy institute tells that appealing to the president is justified, because Russians can see the army’s problems as problems caused by bad local governance and corruption, as well as bad luck.
– Disadvantages related to mobilization, such as deficiencies in training and equipment, do not necessarily appear as a system-level problem, despite the fact that similar problems have occurred in different parts of the country, says Silvan.
However, mothers and wives can organize themselves to influence the situation: they don’t want to see their loved ones return home in dead bodies.
Although individual women do not declare their opposition to the war, Silvan sees a kind of civic activism in the video messages.
– Protesting can get you into trouble, so it is justified that people refrain from demands against the current administration, says Silvan.
According to the researcher, it is also easier for the government to make concessions to demands that do not openly criticize the current authoritarian system.
Silvan estimates that Putin will not intervene in the activities of mothers and wives as long as criticism is not directed at Putin himself or women’s activism does not challenge the prevailing authoritarian system.
On the other hand, it has become clear in the women’s messages that the Russian authorities have systematically belittled the women’s experiences and even called the women’s claims about the conditions of the Russian soldiers false.
According to Silvan, this can create a basis for social movements and unite people.
The stubbornness of mothers and wives led to the fact that Putin decided to meet (you switch to another service) Mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine last Friday.
British of The Guardian (you will switch to another service) according to Putin, the event organized by Putin is of a theatrical nature and pro-Kremlin participants were selected for the event.
The discussion included a former member of the government, the mother of a high-ranking military and police official in Chechnya, and women who work in pro-war non-governmental organizations funded by the Russian state.
Talking with the mothers at the round table, Putin expressed his condolences to the mothers and warned against fake news that is being spread online.
Tsukanova, who heads the Council of Mothers and Wives, criticizes In Telegram (you switch to another service) meeting arrangements.
According to Tsukanova, the members of the Council of Mothers and Wives were on duty in Moscow for days to talk with the state leadership, but their efforts were rejected time and time again.
Putin did not invite anyone from the Committee of Mothers and Wives to discuss at the round table.
You can discuss the topic on Sat 3.12. until 11 p.m.