Widows of pro-Putin fighters killed in Ukraine are being given fur coats donated by a supplier based in Russia's capital city.
Footage shows how the garments were handed over to the women in Makiivka, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
Miroslava Reginskaya, who was organising the donations, said the decision had been made to hand the coats over to women whose husbands had been invading the Donbas.
The coats were going to 21 “widows of our fallen defenders”, the 29-year-old announced.
Among the recipients was Natalia Denisyuk, widow of Yury Denisyuk, 35.
The women are heard on video giving thanks for the fur coats to Yevgeny Skripnik, an associate of Igor ‘Strelkov’ Girkin.
Girkin was a convicted war criminal and former former defence minister of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, who was married to Reginskaya.
One woman said: “We received some unexpected help today. Very grateful.
“The families of the dead soldiers gathered here thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.”
The coats were donated by a Moscow fur supplier, it is understood.
Skripnik is heard saying: “This help is from the Russian activists of our capital [Moscow].
“Do not forget, even though they are our rear they help us, for all the nine years of this conflict…
“At such moments we feel we are one family.”
Girkin, 52, is among three convicted on war crimes charges by a Dutch court last year for the downing of a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet in which all 298 on board were killed in 2014.
Despite this, he remains a key voice inside Russia on the conduct of the war, often criticising Vladimir Putin and his commanders for failing to strike Ukraine harder.
This comes as Moscow lawmakers are planning to press-gang unemployed men into fighting on the Ukraine frontline, The Mirror can reveal.
The cruel plan will involve hundreds of thousands of jobless male recruits forcibly signing up when they turn up to the dole office.
It is the latest plan to boost troop numbers for President Vladimir Putin’s ailing war which has thus far killed 132,160 of Moscow’s soldiers.
And it comes as Ukraine is bracing for a major Russian offensive, with 300,000 more of Moscow’s recruits deploying in a few weeks.
It follows debates with Moscow’s State Duma lawmakers and the dole-queue to war proposal is being considered by Putin.
Currently some 50,000 Wagner Group mercenaries are doing the brunt of the fighting in Ukraine, many of them recruited from prisons.
