Ukraine: Russian mothers demand justice for sons sent to war

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Irina Chistyakova, 44, broke down into floods of tears on Sky News as she cried that the stress of her missing 19-year-old son has made her “already like an old woman” who is “on pills” just to get to sleep at night. She told how she relies on a “whole suitcase of medicine”, so badly affected she has been by the horror of Russian generals sending her son to war, only for them to go silent after he went missing four months ago. 

Ms Chistyakova said: “I want my son to be put on the list of prisoners of war and returned to Russia. 

“I want those who sent him [to Ukraine] after just three months in the army to be brought to justice.” 

In floods of tears, Ms Chistyakova added: “I can’t take it anymore. I don’t sleep. I’m on pills. 

“I’m only 44 years old and I’m already like an old woman. I have a whole suitcase of medicine. And no one hears us and no one wants to listen to us! That’s the problem. 

“Invite me to Ukraine! Let me go through your camp, I will find my son and I will calm down.”

Another mother, whose 20-year-old son is missing, said: “By law, they should prohibit them from being called to sign these contracts. 

“Just don’t allow them to go. They are still young and don’t realise what they are doing.” 

Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay said: “But the pay is good, especially if you come from one of Russia’s poorer regions. 

“And the messaging from Moscow is that this is a fight for the motherland to fend off an aggressive west.” 

Ms Chistyakova’s 19-year-old son Kyrill went missing four months ago after being conscripted into the Russian army from a poor region in the country. 

His name appears on no lists of missing soldiers and the Russian ministry of defence said it could not confirm whether her son was being held captive or was, in fact, simply missing. 

On February 22, Kyrill messaged her to say he was going on an exercise on the Ukrainian border, after which they lost contact.

It is expected that soldiers sign a contract before they are sent into Ukraine but Ms Chistyakova could not confirm whether he had been offered official terms. 

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It has been four months since Russia published any casualty count, with the last update on March 25 suggesting that 1,351 servicemen had been killed in the war in Ukraine. 

However, secret service chiefs at the CIA and MI6 have suggested that around 15,000 Russian soldiers have died since February. 

That works out to more than double the average of battlefield deaths of 50 a day when looking at all global wars since 1816. 

Official Ukrainian estimates of Russian servicemen deaths are even higher, with their tally reporting around 35,000 troops have died as of late June. 

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