Mothers of Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine have accused the Kremlin of using their sons as ‘cannon fodder’.
Russian governor Sergey Tsivilev was speaking on stage in the Kuzbass region in Siberia when he was questioned by angry soldiers’ mothers accusing the Kremlin of lying.
“We were all deceived,” one woman said. “Why were our boys sent there? They were not trained. Look at these boys, they’re 20-years-old.”
In response, Mr Tsivilev said: “This is a special operation and at the moment, no one can comment on the special operation, which is the right thing to do. They were used…” to which a mother called out from the crowd: “Used? So our children were used?”
Mr Tsivilev then urged that conclusions or criticisms cannot be made of an ongoing military operation and that “it will end very soon”, to which one mother shouted “when everyone is killed.”
Another mother called out: “We were all deceived, all deceived. They were sent there as cannon fodder”.
It comes as the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war with Ukraine reaches 11,000, according to Ukrainian military, as fighting reaches its twelfth day.
A further eight Ukrainian civilians - including two children - are also thought to have been killed by Russian shelling in the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv on Sunday.
This brings to death toll of Ukrainians to at least 364 people, according to the United Nations.
Multiple evacuation attempts from the besieged city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine have also fallen though, with the most recent being on Sunday, as Russia were accused by Ukraine of breaking a second temporary ceasefire.
The United Nations’ refugee agency says the number of people who have fled the war in Ukraine has increased to more than 1.7 million, up from more than 1.53 million on Sunday.
Nearly three-fifths of the total - nearly 1.03 million - arrived in Poland, according to the agency. More than180,000 went to Hungary and 128,000 to Slovakia.In Montpellier, France, EU foreign affairs policy chief Josep Borrell called on mobilizing “all the resources” of the bloc of 27 nations to help countries welcoming refugees from Ukraine, including neighboring Poland and Romania.
The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.
