Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is facing a revolt from Russian mothers who say their children are being used as “cannon fodder.”
Putin is currently suffering massive losses to his army as his invasion of Ukraine gets bogged down amid low morale, busted supply lines, and unmaintained vehicles.
Russian families are now speaking out and claiming they “were all deceived” by Putin’s government.
“We were all deceived, all deceived,” a woman yelled at Sergey Tsivilev, governor of the Kuzbass region in Siberia, in a video shared to social media.
“They were sent there as cannon fodder,” the woman said of Russian soldiers sent off to invade Ukraine.
“They are young. They were unprepared.”
Olga Larkina, the director of Russia’s Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, told Russian news outlet Meduza:
“Mothers are telling us that their sons have been calling them and saying they’re being forced to sign contracts.
“We believe it’s wrong to force a conscript to become a contract soldier.
“The parents who have gotten in touch have told us their sons were just taken by military officers, stamped, and that’s it — now they’re contract soldiers.”
Putin said in his television address:
“I’d like to address the mothers, wives, sisters, brides, and girlfriends of our soldiers and officers who are in battle now.
“I know how worried you are for your loved ones.
“You can be proud of them just as the whole country is proud and feels for them,” he said.
🔴Soldiers’ mothers hold an important status in Russian society.
The first real rumblings in the 1980s of dissent against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan came from soldiers’ mothers and it steamrolled into a powerful forcehttps://t.co/G1kd8kcedA pic.twitter.com/ndoDFM5SR0
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 7, 2022
🔴Angry Russian mothers have accused Vladimir Putin of deploying their sons as “cannon fodder” in his invasion of Ukraine
Read more here👇https://t.co/G1kd8kcedA pic.twitter.com/Kd4fB6tG1v
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 7, 2022
