The women, from the Kursk and Voronezh regions, traveled to Belgorod to confront the military leadership at the base from which their husbands were sent, independent agency Mozhem Obyasnit reports. “We stop cars passing by [guard] Position. We tearfully ask them to give us cars to get our children out of there. We told them one thing – if they don’t come out and help us, then we, including a pregnant girl, will go to the front line. If they don’t help [our guys], then we will. We will take our husbands, there is no other way,” a woman from the town of Valuyki was quoted as saying. The husbands’ revolt at the military base is just the latest evidence of growing anger from family members of draftees who say the Russian military knowingly sent the men to die in Ukraine without equipment, training or leadership. It’s also just the latest evidence of waning domestic support for the war, as more and more ordinary Russians feel only a fraction of the effects that Ukrainians have for nearly nine months. “They were sent to the front line and thrown like meat,” the sister of one of the draftees told Mozhem Obyashnit. The men are now said to be hiding in a forest in the Luhansk region of Ukraine after the rest of their squadron was almost completely decimated, leaving just over 30 survivors out of 200 men. Family members say the men were completely thrown under the bus by the military leadership, with official Russian Defense Ministry documents referring to them as “fat guards” who escaped from a base in the Kursk region, rather than conscripts sent to fight in Ukraine, Verstka reported. Some of the conscripts accused the Russian military of deliberately using newly mobilized and poorly trained men as cannon fodder, sending them straight to the front lines with faulty weapons while senior military personnel hang back to shoot anyone who retreats. Spouses in Belgorod said they have now been told that the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovit, has traveled to Moscow to speak directly to Vladimir Putin about rescuing troops abandoned in Luhansk. Family members of the draftees from the Vladimir region have also appealed directly to Putin, posting a video calling on him to “take the necessary measures” after the men were duped and sent to the front line in Luhansk without training, food or supplies . . The “fucking” second…[greatest] army in the world”. What, 5 to 10 years to get out of our positions? I’m shocked,” said one of the lottery winners in a video sent to family members and released by independent Russian media. Wives of men conscripted from the Vologda region are also calling on the Russian government to return their wives, describing a similar situation in a video appeal to the governor. After being sent into a “fire trap” in the Luhansk region, they said, the conscripts were “killed by both the enemy and our Russian army.” “It’s time to act, not to think and wait until they’re all cut up in this bloody meat grinder,” said one of the wives.
