Russian wives demand soldiers return from ‘unjust war’

Families believed that their husbands and sons were off for military training, only to find them engaged in a war.

A group of wives of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have issued a video appeal demanding that their husbands are sent home from the “unjust” war.

More than a dozen women and a child from Buryatia, an impoverished district in eastern Siberia, said their husbands had left in January for “training in Belarus” and had not returned, according to the Centre for Defence Strategies (CDS), a Ukrainian think tank.

One of the women called the war “unjust” in comments on social media and said that the local authorities should take the blame for any more men killed. The Kremlin has been accused by campaigners of using the local population as “cannon fodder” for its war in Ukraine and the region has suffered some of the highest casualty rates in the war. Many young men join the military as contract soldiers because of a lack of alternative jobs.

Increasing frustration

The women are the wives of troops in Russia’s 5th Tank Brigade of Tatsin, military unit 46108, which is understood to have suffered at least 30 casualties since the invasion began.

Their appeal highlights the increasing frustration among families in Russia who believed that their husbands and sons were off for training, only to find them engaged in a war.

In a statement read by one of the women, they called on the local governor, Alexei Tsydenov, to investigate and bring the men home. They said their husbands were “exhausted” and many of them were suffering from ill-health.

“The servicemen are exhausted morally and physically. They all have mild to moderate concussions. The soldiers have been in the field from January to the present day. Many people have flu-like diseases,” the statement said.

‘Everyone is afraid’

On social media Vera Partilkhaeva, believed to be one of the women in the video, described the situation as “lawlessness”, according to Sibir Realii, a Russian-language outlet affiliated with US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

She wrote: “Everyone is afraid. The command has been given to be silent! Let the death of every military man in this unjust war be on your conscience! We demand the return of our sons and husbands to their homeland.”

The video statement was deleted on Wednesday along with her profile. Local media reported that the governor had agreed to meet the women over the weekend.

In its latest update, the CDS said: “The morale and psychological condition of the personnel of the invasion forces remain low. The wives of servicemen of the Russian 5th separate tank brigade released a video message demanding the immediate rotation of their husbands home, noting that they had left their permanent deployment locations in January 2022 for ‘training in Belarus’.”

The British Ministry of Defence believes that 25,000 Russian soldiers have been killed fighting in Ukraine.

THE TIMES