In Yuga, south of St. Petersburg, Nikita Avrov’s mother mourns the loss of her son. He died in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Image: AFP
Russia is trying to hide the number of its dead in Ukraine. The organization of the soldiers’ mothers helps the desperate families in the search for their husbands and sons in the war. But their work is dangerous.
WIf he is looking for his son, husband or grandson in Russia and thinks he is in Ukraine, he can turn to Marina. It’s a pseudonym, because Marina belongs to the movement of the Soldier’s Mothers of Russia, and her involvement has become dangerous. Not just with the war, which in Russia has to be called a “special military operation”. Last fall, new regulations took away from the hands of soldiers’ mothers the methods they had used for decades to help soldiers, conscripts, and their families. Activists can no longer record what has happened to those who contact one of the movement’s many regional branches. Such information is now considered a state secret.
Following the attack on Ukraine, criminal laws were enacted prohibiting “discrediting” or spreading “false news” about Russia’s armed forces or foreign activities of other state agencies. You can get a fine or up to 15 years in prison. Several Russians are already in custody. Many of Marina’s comrades-in-arms have given up. She feels she has to speak up. She calls the war a tragedy and catastrophe for both the Ukrainians and the Russians.