By: Alicia Chen
Russian men and boys who have gone to war and signed the treaty that agrees for them to serve in the war are often killed within a day of being on a battlefield. These stories are exactly what the Kremlin wants to hide.
But they can’t get rid of every single one. Vladmir Krot was a Soviet-trained pilot, aged 59. He begged to fight for the Ukraine side. After multiple rejections, they finally said yes.
He died only days later, crashing along with his jet, leaving his wife and 8-year-old daughter alone to fend for themselves.
The number of people dead in the war in a secret. It is now illegal to question the amount of war dead or criticize the military. Authorities say that “tears and suffering” is bad for public morale. They have even shut down some online memorial pages.
The main goal of the Kremlin is to shut down the angry and grieving voices of the citizens, as this will eventually gain traction. The number of dead revealed to the public could seriously effect Russia’s urgent recruitment of prisoners’ military experience in exchange for highly paid contracts.
Dmitry Shkrebets accused the military of lying about the number of deaths when the Black Sea flag ship Moskva was sunken by Ukrainian missiles. His son was one of the sailors on the ship. He was labeled as “missing.” Soon after this, internal security agents came to his house. They confiscated his laptop. And 111 days after this, he was finally given his son’s death certificate.
Shkrebets wrote in a post, most likely on Vkontakte, the Russian version of TikTok, “It will never be easier. There will never be true joy. We will never be the same again. We have become different, we have become more unhappy, but also stronger, tougher. We no longer fear even those who should be feared.”
The story of Chubarin’s death was also a reflection of the Russian military’s desperation. He was the son of Chubarina. He signed a three-month treaty without asking how much he would be paid because of his excitement. His mother, Nina Chubarina, thinks that he wanted to prove himself as a man.
“He knew it was dangerous,” she said in an interview. After he arrived in Belgorod, he kept sending cheerful messages and videos. He got a little bit of training during his four-day stay there and was then sent to war. He sent a last rushed call to his mother. “That was it, that was the last time we spoke,” she said. His body was found Mariupol on May the 16th. “He was a very brave guy. Not afraid of anything. He was so cheerful and open and so kind.”
Her son sent her a poem while a conscript in 2017. She rereads it, “Forgive me for all the pain that has fallen onto your weary shoulders. Please accept my soldier’s bow. It is from the bottom of my heart.”
Despite all these stories, many grieving families don’t question the war.
A woman named Raisa Dugarova said online, “Why does Buryatia have to bury its sons every day? Why are we doing this?”