'I just want to return my son': the families of the military who disappeared in Ukraine turned to Putin

More than 100 families of Russian servicemen have turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a demand to find their sons, husbands and brothers who are in the war zone in Ukraine, reports North. Realities.

Photo: Shutterstock

Relatives receive replies from departments and ministries: some say that their relatives are alive, others that they are missing or dead. Correspondents spoke to mothers and wives who have been trying for months to find and return home their relatives from Ukraine.

Dozens of relatives of Russian servicemen turned to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a demand to help find their children, brothers and spouses - military men who are participating in the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“We demand that our loved ones be found and added to the lists of prisoners of war who have gone missing. No search work is being carried out, as they are listed as missing. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has been blocking changes in the status of military personnel for more than five months, regardless of their constantly changing information. Relatives have to look for facts and prove for themselves that their son, husband was in captivity (died) - this is the case all over the country. The authorized bodies are doing their work poorly, there is no help from the commanders of military units,” says the letter, which the parents and wives personally delivered to the reception of the presidential administration on July 26.

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The appeal was signed by 106 people. One signature from the family of one Russian serviceman who either went missing, died, or is simply on the territory of Ukraine, where hostilities have been going on since February 24. They demand not only to find the missing Russian soldiers in Ukraine, but also to create a point in every region of Russia where relatives of servicemen would be helped with the search for living, captured, wounded and dead relatives who are in Ukraine.

The Russian authorities claim that it is not a war going on in Ukraine, but a special operation. The authorities of Ukraine call what is happening a war, after the invasion of Russia they declared martial law in the country. In early March 2022, 141 countries condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine, 35 states abstained, and five delegations - Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Eritrea - voted against.

Millions of citizens of Ukraine have left their homes due to hostilities. As of July 19, according to the UN, 5100 Ukrainian civilians have died because of the war, 346 of which are children.

Since the beginning of hostilities, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported losses only twice. According to official data as of March 25, 1351 Russian servicemen died in the war. It is unknown whether this number includes employees of the Russian Guard and private military companies, as well as military personnel called up from the controlled territories of the “LPR” and “DPR.” Also, the Russian side does not report the number of wounded and captured military personnel. Using open data, the BBC and Mediazona managed to confirm information about 4940 dead soldiers and officers (data as of July 22, 2022).

The Ukrainian side claims that more than 25 Russian servicemen have been killed or wounded since the start of hostilities. “DPR” publishes data on the losses of its forces. From the beginning of the year until June 16, the republic recognized 2128 servicemen dead and 8897 wounded.

Anna Danilova came to Moscow from Samara, she wants to return her 47-year-old husband Alexander. They met back in 2008, he was already in the military then. When asked about her attitude to the service, Anna replies that “she doesn’t understand this,” and her husband didn’t say anything about work in the house.

“He said he was going on a business trip for a training exercise. On April 3, I received a message from the other side (from Ukraine) that he had been killed. They (the Russian military personnel) had neither telephone numbers nor documents. I immediately called the unit. I say that they told me that my husband was dead, and they answer me: no, no, no, don’t worry, they are already being taken out. And on the 4th the political officer called and said: “It’s burned out, there’s nothing to take.” Burnt out in an armored personnel carrier. That side (Ukraine) calls at the same time and says: I survived. They tell me they’ll send me the video now,” says Anna.

She corresponded for several days with a “UAF warrior” who told her that her husband survived, received a through wound in the face and was taken to the hospital. Anna never spoke to her husband personally - allegedly he could not due to severe injury. Four days later, Anna suffered a mini-stroke amid what was happening, after which she still stutters. Now Anna is trying to “reach out to someone so that they can at least somehow return her husband from captivity.”

“He is listed as missing. They tell me: prove that yours is in captivity. I know that on June 1 he was taken from the hospital. I won’t say what city this hospital is in - I’m afraid for the doctor. I'm afraid to give you an interview, but what should I do? If this is criminally punishable, I will go to jail, just give me my husband back. And then I will sit. I just want my husband back from captivity. Where else should I go?” - says Anna.

Irina Chistyakova, a resident of Petrozavodsk, became one of the authors of the appeal. She has been unsuccessfully trying to find her 19-year-old son Kirill for several months now. She has a mountain of replies in her hands: some say that he is alive and is in the war, others that he is a prisoner in Ukraine, and others say that he died. Colleagues saw Kirill for the last time on March 24.

“In early June, Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova received a response from the Ministry of Defense that my son was alive and being held illegally by the Ukrainian side. How did he get there, what do you mean illegally? He ended up in Ukraine illegally there. I called the Ministry of Defense and said that I had the answer of the Ombudsman Moskalkova in my hands, and asked why my son had not yet been included in the list of prisoners of war. After that, they called me back from the Ministry of Defense and said that the status of a prisoner of war was not confirmed. It turns out that Moskalkova received an answer from the Ministry of Defense, gave this answer to me, but it does not carry any legal force. After that, I repeatedly called the Ministry of Defense. Some officers said that my son was not considered missing, or dead, or wounded, he was in the ranks, everything was supposedly fine with him, wait - he would call. On June 30, I called the Ministry of Defense again at 9 am and was informed that, according to military intelligence, my son was considered a prisoner of war. I burst into tears. I begged them to put it on the exchange list. On July 2, I called the hotline of the Ministry of Defense and again they told me: the status is missing, ”says Chistyakova.

Kirill was drafted into the army in October 2021. He was sent to serve from Karelia to the city of Luga, Leningrad Region. Kirill ended up in the reconnaissance company of military unit 29760. There he allegedly signed a contract, but Irina herself did not see the document, although she requested it from the unit. In early February, servicemen from Luga were sent to Kursk for exercises.

Irina says that during conversations with her son, there were “sounds of mortar fire” and “whistles” in the background.

“I asked what it is. Cyril answered: yes, ours are naughty, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are naughty. I asked: in the sense, are you on both sides? He replied that anything could happen. I asked him why you are without body armor, where is your helmet, where is your everything? He replied that we do not shoot, ”Irina retells the conversation with her son.

Kirill graduated from the cadet class in Petrozavodsk with honors. After the ninth grade, I decided to go to a technical school, where I studied for three years. In Karelia, he got a job, but in the fall of 2021 he received a summons to the army.

“He dreamed of being a soldier. But I think that he would never voluntarily go to this NWO, - Irina argues. “He was sent there on the criminal orders of the commanders and fraudulently. It was about the border with Ukraine, not abroad. He and the other guys were deceived cruelly.”

Irina created several chats with the mothers of servicemen to help search for the wounded, the dead and the living. They consist of about 2,5 thousand relatives of the military. Irina herself believes that publicizing the whole situation is dangerous, but the only way to find out the truth about what is happening.

“My life is in danger, and that danger comes from the military. One colonel told me: military psychos, if you wait until the end, then the irreparable will happen, and that I started the war with the wrong structure. I told him that this is my son and to scare me with a bullet in the forehead is stupid. The colonel replied that he did not scare, but warned that the military were crazy, ”says Irina.

Together with Irina, 8 more people came to Moscow to deliver the letter. All of them are from different cities and all with one request: to find out where their children and husbands are, who ended up in a war with Ukraine.

Maria Shumova came from the Vologda region. Her 23-year-old son Vladimir served under contract in the 104th regiment of the 76th Pskov division. His father also served in the Airborne Forces.

“On the 27th they got into Bucha, although they had to go bypassing Bucha, but the commander gave them an order to go through Bucha.

A lot of people died there. The reconnaissance was almost all lost. According to colleagues, my son's BND was hit. They were ordered to go to the Belgorod border, but then they received an order to go to check the settlement. On April 5, there was a video that Pskov paratroopers were slaughtered. The video showed that two were taken prisoner. Two cars were called to help, our car, in which Vladimir was, was blown up. Most likely, he died,” says Shumova. This is her assumption, because she has no information about her son.

According to her, military actions in Ukraine were needed to protect the Donbass side and “protect Russian rights,” but she immediately asks the question: why was it necessary to attack Kiev and why did hundreds of military personnel die?

“I have nothing against this. I really want everything to be peaceful, without such hostilities, I don’t want the guys to die. In general, I think so: if it is necessary, then it is necessary to protect Donbass. But what did the Kiev direction have to do with it? Why were our guys thrown there? I want to get an answer why our guys disappeared and died near Kyiv, if they all went to protect the Donbass, the “LPR”. At first, I followed the news, but now ... Since we can’t find our son, I follow the information more in these chats, we rarely watch TV. I do not blame anyone, but if this special operation was needed, then it should have been thought out so that our guys would not die like this for nothing.

I don’t hide information, I’m not afraid to be afraid. I want to be given an answer: if he died, that my body be returned to me, at least something. It seems to me that the president knew nothing about this. I think that a lot of things are getting past the president. I believe this whole operation was sold out from the very beginning,” she says.

Relatives of the Russian military say that all attempts to act officially and through departments are yielding no results. Each time, some progress on the return of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war occurred only after the mothers appealed to the media. Every day they listen, “like from robots” or “bots,” to the answers of anonymous “officers” from the hotline of the Ministry of Defense with the memorized text: your son is not on the negative lists, his status is missing. But in reality, no efforts are being made to search for servicemen, the relatives of the missing servicemen are sure.

Irina Chistyakova says that all parents of military personnel are faced with “the indifference of the authorities from the president to municipal authorities,” and many families from the Russian hinterland cannot simply draw up and send an appeal to the Ministry of Defense to search for their children.

“Not a single deputy, no one initiates a meeting with parents who are looking for their children. We face indifference, no one wants to help. I am now talking about the war, about this special operation. We are forbidden to say war.

In our country, it turns out, they don’t kill and don’t die in the NWO. This was said by the acting head of military unit 29760 Knyazev Nikolai Nikolaevich. He said that my son was on a business trip and was not participating in hostilities,” says Chistyakova.

When Kirill Chistyakov was being transported to a military unit from Karelia to the Leningrad region, he met Nikita M. His mother, Anastasia, says that her son wanted to sign a contract from the very beginning. Kirill and Nikita even wanted to rent an apartment near the part. Before the army, Nikita studied at the police college in Petrozavodsk, but wanted to “not spend his parents’ money on studies”: serve under a contract, return home and get a job, then finish his studies at his own expense.

“On October 29, my son wrote a report to serve under a contract. I assume that along with this report he signed a contract form without specifying the date. In December, I found out that my brother, who was caring for my elderly mother, fell ill with cancer. I called my son and told him not to sign the contract because I needed him here at home. He said: “Okay,” Anastasia recalls.

According to her, Nikita contacted the senior lieutenant, explained the situation and asked to cancel the contract. In response, the officer “assured that he had torn up the report.” Nikita continued to serve, “not suspecting that the contract remained in force and no one terminated it.” When military personnel began to be sent to Kursk for training in early February, Nikita remained with the unit.

“My son immediately said that he would not go to the exercises, that he was afraid to shoot, to fight, and in general he wanted to live. He continued his service, not suspecting that he was a contract soldier. On February 28, a senior lieutenant came to him and said: get ready, you are going on a business trip. He was given uniforms and taken to Sertolovo (a city in the Leningrad region). He called me in the morning and said that they had brought me to some strange gathering, but they weren’t saying anything. I asked: “Aren’t they sending you to Ukraine?” He replied: “I don’t know,” Anastasia continues. – On the evening of February 28, my son called from Belgorod. He was brought there on a plane with all the guys. I asked if he could refuse. He was told that he was a contract soldier, which meant he was going to Ukraine. He said that for refusal he would face a criminal offense, imprisonment for up to 20 years. On March 2, he went to the Kharkov region. From March 2, for 18 days, I did not know what happened to my son. He texted me from some number saying everything was fine, alive and well. A week later, another SMS: I’m fine, alive and well. And so once a week, two.”

Anastasia wants to have her son's contract declared invalid. According to her, the date in the contract is February 4, 2021, while Nikita was only drafted into the army at the end of October 2021.

“The number on the contract is not by my son's hand. Everywhere they say - the military prosecutor's office and lawyers - that everything is legal. It's just a typo. Now he wants to go on vacation, but the commander does not give him a vacation, because his son told him that he would not return. Only because of these words he does not give him a vacation. He told the commander the truth in the eye, ”says Anastasia.

Larisa (name changed) came to Moscow from Samara, she cries almost all the time. In a trembling voice, she explains that she has already been threatened: “They called from the FSB and said: keep quiet!” Her only son would have turned 21 in July. Last summer he signed a contract, although Larisa herself was against it. Larisa, like Irina, has a stack of letters from different departments, where some say that her son is alive and fighting, while others write that he is missing.

“I told him not to sign a contract. He: Mom, I'll be near the house. He traveled in his car: he left in the morning and arrived in the evening. They gathered for exercises supposedly in Belarus. Then it turned out that they were brought from this operation. He didn't say anything. He said that the phones were being taken away, there would be no connection for two weeks. He is a private, he is a boy. They didn’t convey this information to them, I don’t know how it is. For a long time he did not get in touch, we went to a unit in Samara. We lived, we prayed... He is listed as missing in the Ministry of Defense. We write, we communicate. We have a whole folder of replies, I have a notice that my son died. And they send me a reply that he is doing his duty in connection with a special military operation - he is fighting, ”says Larisa.

Larisa claims that the mothers of servicemen were contacted by a man who introduced himself as a “Warrior of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” “Warrior of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” wrote that the platoon of Larisa’s son died and was buried in the village of Novaya Basan, Chernihiv region.

“He said that the bodies of the dead soldiers are there and when everything is over, they will let us dig them up. We write everywhere, but we are not told anything. It just happened in March, and now it's July. And what will they bring us? If they bring it at all. Boys... He couldn't do anything. He went to college with a law degree. Dad always said that a man should serve. The son chose this contract. I couldn't dissuade him. I just want my son back. I don't want anything else. Return, ”and Larisa again breaks down to cry.

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In an appeal to President Putin, handed over by mothers and wives to the reception room of the Presidential Administration in Moscow, they demand not only to find the whereabouts of their children, but also to meet with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, which would include representatives of wives / mothers from all regions of the Russian Federation, and also that the president appointed his representative, who would report to the relatives of the missing military on the work done. They also ask to return all the prisoners home and initiate DNA tests if there is information where the fighter is buried. There are no demands for Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

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