Brave wives and mothers have staged furious protests against Vladimir Putin’s war.
It is the first time first time since he launched his invasion of Ukraine nearly nine months ago they let their feelings be known.
Defiant new videos show how they are challenging the authoritarian leader over his chaotic forced mobilisation of their husbands and sons.
The furious women from different locations in Russia recorded footage to complain at the way draftee men are sent to the frontline without proper training and brandishing outdated equipment.
A recurring theme is that Putin’s promise of proper training has been flouted by his commanders.
One woman, Elena Agaeva, 33, from Almetyevsk, accuses the military of using her husband as "cannon fodder”, telling how he crawled away from death after being wounded in a drone attack.
Another, Tatyana Vasilyeva, 26, from Moscow region, said her husband Alexander “had no combat or shooting experience” yet was still forced to the hot warzone as one of 300,000-plus conscripts.
“The commander, who escorted them to the front line, was wounded and ordered [them] to backtrack after dark.…
“Today my husband and other men are in the forest without food, water, or warm clothes.
“The commander called Rumyantsev threatens them with a tribunal and prison if they do not return to the front line….”
Women in Serov, Sverdlovsk region gathered together to berate the authorities over the mobilisation in a sudden new trend across Russia to challenge Putin’s call-up.
One said: “After 10 days [my husband] does not get in touch, we do not know if he is alive or not. Nothing is known.”
Another complained: “There was no preparation, no exercises.
“For two weeks in the tent camp, they only twice went to the shooting range - when a TV crew came.”
Elena Agaeva told how her husband was under drone attack.
She said: “He never gave the exact location. There were drones, shelling them. Just like cannon fodder.
“[My husband] was the first to get hurt.
“The first fragment hit them in the face, an armoured personnel carrier fired on them. They walked around five miles.
“Then a drone overtook them and the shelling began again. He got more shrapnel in his arm, leg and coccyx.
“The soldiers abandoned him and ran away. He was there alone for a day, trying to crawl.
“The next day, our soldiers found him, helped him into the armoured personnel carrier, and took him to hospital.
“He called his mother and said that he was wounded.”
Another woman tells how “as for the dead, no one takes them away.
“The men bury them themselves.
“Then the authorities say they are missing.
“The wounded are also carried as long as they can, and then they die.”
Another woman hits out: “We ask that they be moved from the front line to the second and third lines, as they were promised, that they will engage in territorial defence, and not fight on the front line.
“They are not deserters.
“They want to protect their homeland. But they need a command that will manage them. And also weapons.”
Yet another woman, from Voronezh, issues a direct appeal to Putin over the way untrained mobilised men are rushed to the frontline, a trend that has prompted allegations of them being used as “cannon fodder”.
She begged: “Dear President,
“We ask you to pay your attention to those mobilised from the Bogucharsky unit.
“The men were thrown to the front line in the first days of being in the war zone.
“They were left without command, and defeated.
“Please help get the guys out of the front line.”
Many other women complain that their men are missing.
They try to stay within the confines of Putin’s draconian laws which mean that any criticism of the army can lead to lengthy prison terms.
One man in Serov joined the fightback against the war, declaring:“We are appealing because the situation is very tense.
“Our children are on the front line, treated like pigs. There is no food.
“They give one and a half litres of water for two days to two people…”
In Penza, 30 wives and mothers expressed their disgust that their men were sent to the front ill-prepared and without food, water and proper weapons.
They demand "normal commanders” for the men.
This comes as men pictured in Siberian city Novosibirsk complained about the “Soviet equipment” with which they expect to be sent soon to Ukraine.
Draftee Aleksey Kurmyshev, 39, complained he was given weapons 30 years older than he is.
This means he was issued with firearms by Putin's commanders almost the same age as the 70-year-old president.
