Is Putin threatening to shoot his soldiers?
Russian mothers are said to be begging for mercy
Created: 11/25/2022, 7:54 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
Have to go to the Ukraine front: a woman presents a cross to a young Russian soldier.
© IMAGO / SNA
Via videos: Public protests by Russian soldiers' mothers and wives against the deployment of recruits at the front are apparently increasing.
In the Ukraine war, they are aimed directly at Vladimir Putin.
Munich/Moscow/Volgograd - More than 85,000 Russian soldiers are said to have been killed or wounded in the Ukraine war since February 24.
The Ukrainian media project bases its daily update on "enemy losses" due to the military fighting on information from the General Staff in Kyiv.
There is no confirmation from Moscow, no denial, no own figures, simply no reaction.
Ukraine War: Huge losses on the Russian and probably also on the Ukrainian side
The statistics of the Ukrainian armed forces cannot be independently verified.
According to a US military report published on November 10, the Russian side has killed or wounded far more than 100,000 soldiers so far.
The same is likely to apply to Ukraine, it said from the United States.
Recently, there have been increasing reports that newly recruited Russian soldiers - according to the Kremlin there are more than 300,000 - are poorly equipped and inadequately trained on the Ukraine front near Kharkiv in the east, in the Donbass or near Cherson in the south.
Public protests by Russian soldiers' mothers and wives via video are apparently also increasing.
The women are literally begging Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for mercy for the mostly young men.
The addressee of the appeals is often also Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu.
In the video: Compact - The most important news about the current situation in the Russia-Ukraine war
The Moscow correspondent of the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)
writes about this in a current analysis of the daily newspaper.
The women are now standing in rows in front of supermarkets, barracks and in parking lots to record digital video messages to Russian politicians.
Russian recruits: wives and mothers accuse - they turn directly to Vladimir Putin
The soldiers were neither prepared nor armed, nor provided with food and warm clothing, and landed "directly in the combat zone," said a woman from the Vladimir region - which is really its name - east of Moscow.
A mother says in one of the videos that her son is being treated in a military hospital because he was "head wounded" by shrapnel.
According to her statements, he should be sent straight back to the front despite injuries.
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They have not completed the path that would allow them to feel safe on the front lines.
Soldier's wife from Volgograd via video to Vladimir Putin (according to FAZ)
Russia's soldiers: women report the threat of being shot or being prosecuted as deserters
The
FAZ
quotes from one of the video messages that address Putin directly about the recruits.
"We are not asking for our men to be taken home," says a woman in the recording from Volgograd. "Our men are not cowards, not deserters." Instead, they "deliberately moved out to protect their homeland."
She puts it into perspective: “They are not professional soldiers.
They have not completed the path that would allow them to feel safe on the front lines.
We beg you, Vladimir Vladimirovich: take control of our situation.
Get that straight. We know only you can help us.”
But that's not all: According to the
FAZ
, some women reported that their husbands were threatened with shooting or criminal proceedings as "deserters" if they left their positions at the front.
War in Ukraine: Complaints from Russian soldiers and their relatives are piling up
Are conditions in the Russian invading army deteriorating unabated?
According to the
Washington Post
, it was able to speak to a transport worker from St. Petersburg, named Yana, whose husband was sent to the Ukraine war as part of the partial mobilization.
"You don't get any orders and you don't have any tasks," the Russian recruit's wife is quoted as saying: "I spoke to my husband yesterday and he said they have no idea what to do.
They have just been abandoned and have lost all trust, all faith in the authorities.”
Under pressure: Russian soldiers at the front in Ukraine, not far from Kharkiv.
(symbol photo) © IMAGO / SNA
A woman named Irina Sokolova allegedly directly accused Russia's military leadership.
"Of course he had no idea how terrible it would be there," Sokolova said, according to the
Washington Post
: "We watch our state television stations and they say that everything is perfect." Her husband called her from a forest, sobbing and completely broken.
"You lie on TV," he said, she told the US newspaper.
This coincides with assessments by Western military officials.
War in Ukraine: Do new Russian recruits hardly bring combat effectiveness to the army?
"Newly hired recruits are likely to receive minimal training or no training at all," British intelligence said in early November about the use of newly recruited Russian recruits on the Ukraine front.
Experienced officers and trainers were probably killed in the fighting, according to the update from the London Ministry of Defense at the time.
The deployment of untrained forces thus hardly contributes to combat effectiveness.
Are problems increasing among Putin's troops?
Is there no more military progress to report?
The American Pentagon also believes Russia is in an ammunition dilemma, and Moscow is already turning to Iran and North Korea because of the lack of projectiles, said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, according to
Foreign Policy
.
As the
FAZ
also writes in its analysis, Russian units on many front sections have nothing more than assault rifles.
Meanwhile, the killing continues.
And dying.
(pm)