Russian women and mothers have urged President Vladimir Putin to stop sending their husbands and sons "to the slaughter" by compelling them to join assault squads without proper training or equipment.
In a video released by the independent Russian Telegram channel SOTA, the women said that their loved ones had been "forced to join attack gangs" at the start of March despite having had just four days of training since their mobilization in September.
Per CNN, the video depicts the ladies holding a placard that reads "580 Separate Howitzer Artillery Division" in Russian and is dated March 11, 2023. Vladimir Maraktaev, 23, and a 30-year-old man who requested to be known as Andrey are among the five Russians who arrived at South Korea's Incheon International Airport on January 24, 2023, seeking refugee status after receiving their draft notification, but remain in limbo.
After four months of being confined to an airport in South Korea, this Russian is still not free. But his alternative is even worse. The decision by Russia to deploy hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight on the battlefields of Ukraine has sparked unrest and outrage and driven many Russians, particularly young men, to quit the country.
Families of conscripted Russian men have condemned the mobilization, citing concerns such as disciplinary issues, a lack of leadership from mid-ranking commanders, and a lack of training and logistical challenges such as inadequate uniforms and lousy food, and a shortage of medical supplies.
Putin's September decision to mobilize more than 300,000 men - the first since 1941 - shocked many ordinary Russians. Several individuals who were drafted have perished. Insufficient training and a lack of equipment have contributed to the high fatalities.
According to recruits, they were thrown into a war with outdated weaponry and inappropriate attire. A group of independent Russian journalists known as the 'No Future' project asserts that the government sought to conceal the deaths of dozens of Volgograd-based soldiers dispatched to combat without ammunition.
According to the organization, prospective recruits are also denied first-aid supplies and hot meals, and during a two-week training program, the guys "played on their phones." They are prepared to serve their country, not as stormtroopers but according to their training and specialization.
The woman requested that soldiers be withdrawn from the contact line and that artillerymen be supplied with artillery and ammunition. The group's criticism of the Kremlin is a response to the increasing resentment of Russian spouses and mothers over the war.
Putin told a group of enraged moms last year that he understood "their sorrow" at a staged sit-down when he sometimes seemed tearful. This was a rare admission of the government's shortcomings, per Daily Telegraph.
He has also stated that "errors" were committed to calling for reinforcements. The Kremlin has nonetheless hinted at a second mobilization. Lawmakers have proposed a measure that will give the Russian National Guard additional authority to execute military conscription orders, as well as another that will permit the confiscation of property from Russians who leave overseas.
Woman Interrupts TV Program to Criticize Putin
Meanwhile, a Russian TV editor who stopped a program to criticize Vladimir Putin for his war in Ukraine has described her terrible story of fleeing her country after being flagged as a potential target. Marina Ovsyannikova, a 44-year-old Ukrainian-born model, made headlines a year ago when she stood before Channel One cameras with a sign that read: "NO WAR. STOP THE WAR. DO NOT BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA. THEY'RE LYING TO YOU HERE. RUSSIANS AGAINST WAR."
In August, she was imprisoned under house arrest and placed on the country's red list for another incident in which she held up a sign labeling the dictator a murderer and his forces fascists. The dictatorship accused her of distributing false information about Russia's armed forces, a Kremlin-invented felony for which she might be imprisoned for ten years in a harsh Russian penal colony.
Instead of waiting for the nearly likely guilty judgment, Marina and her small daughter made a daring escape to Paris. According to Mirror, they currently dwell in the French capital after President Emmanuel Macron granted them political refuge and round-the-clock security.
In October of last year, she cut her ankle tag with a pair of wire cutters she kept in her purse before embarking on a voyage that required her and her 11-year-old daughter Arisha to switch automobiles seven times before reaching the border.
At one point, one of the cars became inoperable after becoming trapped in the mud, and the two were forced to walk 12 kilometers over soggy fields and woodlands, using the stars to guide them to the border because they had no cell phone connection.
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