Russian women have taken to the streets of Moscow in protest outside Russia‘s defence ministry in order to demand the return of their family members from Ukraine.
Protesting mothers, wives, sisters and more gathered in front of the hulking ministry offices on Moscow’s Frunzenskaya Embankment to pile on the pressure on authorities including Defence Minister Andrei Belousov to bring their boys back home.
One of the just 18 women gathered outside the offices, 20-year-old Paulina, said she had a husband who was currently posted in Ukraine.
She said the protesters wanted Belousov – and, by extension, President Vladimir Putin – to put strict limits into place on how long Russian troops can serve before they can be rotated away from active duty.
Putin’s Russia now has the problem of Western-made weaponry within its borders with which to contend
Reuters
Footage posted to popular Russian social media platform Telegram showed a number of women holding signs with slogans including “Please bring Papa home”.
Several of the protesters had even brought their young children – or even toddlers in pushchairs – to the demonstration.
Paulina noted that none of the demonstrating women had been arrested, but said ministry officials had failed to speak to them.
And the 20-year-old was keen to disavow links to “Way Home”, an anti-war activist group which has been proscribed by Putin’s forces as a “foreign agent” over previous protests in the Russian capital.
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The women protested in front of Russia’s defence ministry to pressure Andrei Belousov
Reuters/Wikimedia Commons
In March this year, Way Home-led protests in Moscow saw women demonstrate against Putin as part of widely celebrated International Women’s Day events.
Activist Viktoria Privalova told Politico at the time: “It’s clear the authorities see women as a threat and feel their power, but no one understands how to contain them.”
While in February, dozens of Way Home activists were detained after gathering at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while wearing white headscarves and bringing carnations.
And that followed January’s news that military wives took to the streets to accuse army chiefs of lying to them by telling them that their partners would be in Ukraine for up to a year – and they would not be sent to the frontline.
Recent British Ministry of Defence (MoD) estimates suggest that during May, Russian losses totalled an average of 1,200 per day, while the number of Russian casualties since the start of the Ukraine war has now likely surpassed 500,000.
These are damning figures from Russia, which now has the problem of Western-made weaponry within its borders with which to contend after British, German and US officials sanctioned the use of their arms.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said on Tuesday that said weapons hitting targets inside Russia was a vital decision that would impact Moscow’s tactical aviation and its capability to operate in border areas.
“This will impact the conduct of the war, planning of counteroffensive actions, and will weaken Russians’ abilities to use their forces in the border areas,” Andriy Yermak said.