A grieving mum of a missing Russian conscript serving on sunk warship Moskva has been told by officials her son and other lost sailors were “burned to ashes”.
Brave Olga Dubinina has accused the authorities of lying to bereaved relatives and also subjecting them to “blackmail” by only agreeing to compensation if they sign a paper confirming the vessel was not hit by Ukrainian missiles.
Vladimir Putin ’s flagship went down on April 14, but the Russian authorities have so far acknowledged only one death.
The actual number of victims is believed to be dozens and may run into the hundreds.
The angry mother lost her son Nikita Syromyasov, 20, on the warship but she is still waiting to hear an official account of what happened and receive naval confirmation that he is dead.
“I don’t believe a single word, not a single word of what they say,” she told news outlet ru.krymr.com.
“No matter the rank, it’s all a complete lie.”
Anguished parents and widows are being denied documentation needed for compensation admitting their children died on the ill-fated Moskva, she said.
“We were told that this would only be given to those who sign a document, confirming their son or their husband was killed, died, as a result of [an onboard] catastrophe.”
This means the Russian version that there was an explosion and fire on the ship which led to the sinking - rather than Ukraine and the West’s version that the battleship was hit by two Neptune missiles.
“It's a kind of a…blackmail,” she said.
Asked if she signed, she said: “Of course not.
“What kind of statement is this? Dead as a result of catastrophe?
“I am not happy with this wording, and I don’t agree [this is how] my son died.
“If they think otherwise, I say: ‘Prove it to me’.
“Now they are saying, too, that he burned to ashes.
“The new version is that they all [lost conscripts] burned to ashes.”
The desperate mother, from Sevastopol, said: “They only talk to us, they don’t give us anything in writing.
“There is a group sent to work with those like me, whose sons and husband went missing.
“They say they are carrying some kind of search work, and then it turns out there is no search whatsoever.
“We think so because not a single body fragment has been found since April 25, which is ridiculous.”
Russia has reportedly reversed an official denial that the Moskva had been engaged in the military conflict when it sank.
On board were a crew of 510 including an estimated 300 conscripts despite Putin saying draftees would not be sent to war.
Moskva, the most powerful Russian warship in the Black Sea, is the largest Russian warship to be sunk in combat since World War II.
