The President of Russia Vladimir Putin on Friday met with the mothers of Russian soldiers who were deployed to Ukraine and lost their lives in battle. The mothers of soldiers whose videos have become viral on social media have urgently demanding that the military make good on promises made by President Vladimir Putin.
During the meeting President Putin said to these mothers that he ‘shares this pain’ that the women are feeling.
Sitting with the group of mothers around a table with tea, cakes and bowls of fresh berries, Putin said Moscow shared the pain of those who had lost their sons.
“I would like you to know that, that I personally, and the whole leadership of the country – we share your pain,” Putin said.
“We understand that nothing can replace the loss of a son – especially for a mother,” Putin said, breathing heavily, and frequently clearing his throat. “We share this pain.”
He added that some news about the conflict could not be trusted, adding: “there is a lot of fake news, deceit and lies.”
Putin has said he has no regrets about launching what he calls Russia’s “special military operation” against Ukraine and casts the war as a watershed moment when Russia finally stood up to an arrogant Western hegemony after decades of humiliation in the years since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Anger and concern built across Russia since September, when the Kremlin announced that hundreds of thousands of well-trained and well-equipped men would be conscripted and sent to the battlefield to bolster Moscow’s struggling campaign in Ukraine.
But chaos ensued, with widespread reports of exempted men — the elderly or infirm — being dispatched to the front or conscripts dying after receiving nearly no training, forcing the Kremlin to concede “mistakes”.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers have been sent to fight in Ukraine – including some of the more than 300,000 reservists who were called up as part of a mobilisation announced by Putin in September.
This is the first time Vladimir Putin is meeting the wives and mothers of deceased Russian soldiers after ordering Russian forces into Ukraine nine months ago.
Notably, the Kremlin faces growing pressure to improve their treatment after his invasion reached the nine-month mark with no logical end in sight.
The United States’ top general estimated on Nov. 9 that Russia and Ukraine had each seen more than 100,000 of their soldiers killed or wounded.
(With agency inputs)
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