KEY POINTS

  • The women said their husbands were deployed to participate in Kremlin's 'military drills'
  • They are now calling on the head of the Siberian region to recall their husbands from the war
  • More than 35,200 Russian soldiers have died since the war began in February: Ukraine

More than a dozen women in Russia are now demanding the return of their husbands from the war in Ukraine after at least 30 soldiers belonging to the same brigade were killed.

The group of women living in the Russia’s Republic of Buryatia told RFE/RL that their husbands were deployed in January to participate in what the Kremlin called “military drills.” The women later discovered that their husbands were taking part in President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation in Ukraine.”

The women are now calling on Aleksei Tsydenov, the head of the Siberian region, to recall their husbands from the war, adding that they will hold him personally responsible for the death of local residents deployed in the war in Ukraine as part of the Fifth Tank Brigade of Tatsin.

“Television does not give publicity to this lawlessness! 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. Our children are being killed!” the women said in a video statement addressed to Tsydenov, adding that many of the men had become ill due to their poor living conditions.

Vera Partilkhayeva, the wife of one of the soldiers, said they made the demand after at least 30 officials and soldiers of the brigade were confirmed to have died in Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) recently released a recording of an intercepted phone call where it was revealed that Russian soldiers scheduled to be deployed in the war are now resigning to avoid being sent to the battlefield as the Kremlin’s military losses continue to increase.

It is presently unclear how many Russian soldiers have died in the war. Since Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine in February, the Kremlin has only acknowledged its military losses once — particularly in March when the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 1,351 of its personnel had died.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Tuesday claimed it killed an estimated 35,250 Russian soldiers since the war began.

Many of the Ukrainians who have swelled the ranks of the army following the invasion have received training in a forest previously occupied by Russian soldiers
Many of the Ukrainians who have swelled the ranks of the army following the invasion have received training in a forest previously occupied by Russian soldiers AFP / Sergei SUPINSKY
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