By: Ella Wang
In late February, the CIA and MI6 estimated that there were at least 15,000 Russian soldiers dead as a result of fighting in the Russia-Ukraine War. Most of them had families back at home, and their loved ones were devastated and furious.
Yevgeny Chubarin, a brave 24-year-old man, decided to join the Russian army to fight against Ukraine. His mother, Nina Chubarina, begged him not to go, but she couldn’t convince her son. Chubarin left on May 11th, trained for four days, then was immediately sent to the battlefields. Unfortunately, he was found dead near Mariupol on May 16th. Despite the immense pain and frustration, Chubarina decided to stay quiet about the war in fear of the authorities.
Many other families, like Chubarina’s, were forced to remain quiet about their opinions as it is a crime in Russia to question or criticize the military.
According to the Washington Post, many journalists who spoke with families that lost someone because of war have been arrested by authorities. Many online memorial pages have been shut down as well.
On the other hand, Sergei Dustin refused to remain silent. He expressed his rage on Facebook. Dustin was the father of Alexandra, who was married to a marine named Maksim. However, like many other married military women, she became a widow at age 19. He asked many questions, “Why did a good guy die? Why did my daughter become a widow at the age of 19 and bury her husband, with whom she did not even have time to live properly? Why are our guys and Ukrainians dying right now? For what?”
Dustin described this war as a “massacre, which was started by crazy old people who imagine themselves to be great geopoliticians, super strategists, in fact, incapable of anything but destruction, threats to the whole world, puffing out cheeks and endless lies.”
However, Dustin is not the only one rebelling against decisions of the Russian government. In Buryatia, a group of wives of Russian soldiers made a video in June to demand that the military bring their men home. Many of the soldiers from the region have contacted activist groups for information on how to break their war contracts, according to Alexandra Garmazhapova, founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation.
“Oh god, please stop this war. How many of our guys can die?” a woman named Yevgenia Yakovleva wrote to the Washington Post. “My soul is torn from pain. I don’t know how to accept this, survive and live with it.”
Link to article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/07/russia-ukraine-war-deaths-toll/