A quick response to a desperate call. The governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, responded that the Russian soldiers who had gone to the front “belong to the homeland”, in response to the call of mothers worried about not having news of their son, during a meeting on Thursday.
“Since time immemorial, women have always brought up their children in the spirit of patriotism, in the spirit of defending their country,” the Russian official recalled.
Then he evokes a personal anecdote that serves as an example for the mothers who listen to him, some of whom are moved to tears.
“When I entered the military academy, my mother told me a wonderful phrase: ‘From now on, you do not belong to me. You belong to the state, to the homeland. I respectfully and with a lot of understanding turn over an 18-year-old boy to the armed forces and you become a statesman,'” she said.
Videos to challenge Putin
Videos of concerned Russian mothers have been circulating on social media for several weeks. With no news from her son or her husband for weeks, they ask to know more about what they are doing and demand that they fight with dignity.
“Vladimir Putin, are you a man or not? Will you have the courage to meet us directly, openly?” asks Olga, founder of the “Council of Mothers and Wives.”
The Kremlin ordered a partial mobilization in September, while promising that no mobilized men would be sent to the front. Yet while the conflict is bogged down, 80,000 of the 300,000 men mobilized over two months are currently in combat zones, according to Russian army figures.
Reports on the living conditions of Russian soldiers also point to a lack of equipment, a lack of warm clothing and food. Unlike the Moscow clashes, some men are also used as cannon fodder.
In a sign that the government is taking these calls seriously, Vladimir Putin will meet for the first time this Friday with the mothers of soldiers sent to Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
