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“Our state will exploit our guys, and throw them away like a broken thing”: the despair of the wives of Russian civilians sent to Ukraine
“Our state will exploit our guys, and will throw them away like a broken thing”: the despair of the wives of Russian civilians sent to Ukraine – (SPECIAL ENVOYE / FRANCE 2)
In a closed Russia, at war for two years, “Special Envoy” went to meet the families of civilians mobilized by Vladimir Putin for his “special military operation” against Ukraine. They too are put to the test, as demonstrated in this extract by Macha’s suffering.
In Moscow, it was at the foot of the Kremlin that journalist Luc Lacroix met Macha. With around ten other women, she had come to place red carnations on the tomb of the unknown soldier. In this country where demonstrations are prohibited, they have made this place a meeting point to demand the return of their husbands, fathers, brothers or sons who went to war in Ukraine without having had the choice. Civilians who have been at the front since their mobilization in September 2022, without knowing how much longer.
To better understand the other side of this war, the “Special Envoy” team visited Macha in her apartment in the Moscow suburbs. This young pediatrician, mother of a little girl, showed them photos of her husband, a physiotherapist. They are those of their wedding – she has none of him in uniform, as if to keep at bay this war which interrupted a life of “very happy family so far”.
“Some, we won’t even be able to retype them”
When her husband returned home on leave, Macha surprised him one night drinking alcohol alone – something he never did before, she explains. The two then had a discussion, and he “said that he simply couldn’t sleep because his dark thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone, that he had a heavy heart, because very soon he would have to go back there”, she confides. Returning to the front, leaving her and their daughter alone…
“When I saw this, vsIt was a shock. Because I understood that our state will exploit our guys, and will throw them away like a broken thing, continues Macha, whose tears begin to flow. And we are going to touch our loved ones with our hands. And certain, she finishes in a breath, we won’t even be able to retype them, since there will be nothing left of them.”
Excerpt from “Russia sick of its war”, a report to be seen in “Special Envoy” on February 15, 2024.
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