A group of about 20 women knelt in front of the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday to stage a rare protest and demand the return of their husbands and sons, soldiers mobilized from Ukraine.
Groups of women who are relatives of men who were mobilized into the Russian army by President Vladimir Putin have been holding small-scale protests for months.
The women behind Monday’s protest called for a meeting with Russia’s new defense minister, Andrey Belousov, to demand that men be allowed to return home and that authorities impose limits on soldiers’ service time before they are granted leave. They also demand that mobilized men be replaced by contract soldiers who have agreed to fight.
Russian authorities on Friday labeled the group a “foreign agent” following several protests. The designation is a tactic used by Moscow to silence dissent.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed a group of women, some with school-aged children and children in strollers, kneeling outside the Ministry of Defense, holding banners. The son of a deployed soldier was photographed wearing a t-shirt that said “Bring Dad Back.”
A woman who shared a live stream of the protest on social media said protesters did not invite journalists out of fear. they would be detained. However, one of the videos she shared showed a police van and officers waiting at the Ministry of Defense. She indicated that the women later went home.
The solution to the problem, his post said, is to “end” the war in Ukraine “and stop lying, or carry out a second wave of mobilization and also stop lying,” or return the men who were mobilized.
put on ordered a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists following battlefield setbacks in Moscow’s full-scale war against Ukraine in September 2022. This triggered a rush for flights and long lines on Russia’s borders as the men tried to flee.
Aware of the public reaction, the Russian military has, since the end of 2022, increasingly sought to reinforce forces in Ukraine, recruiting more volunteers. Authorities claimed that around 500,000 men signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense last year.
