(Moscow) For Maria Semionova and her companion, it all started with a knock on their door, a few days after the start of the military mobilization campaign for the conflict in Ukraine decreed by Vladimir Putin in September 2022.
Her boyfriend – whose identity is not published by AFP for security reasons –, still sleepy, was then given his recruitment papers. After six weeks of training, he was sent to fight in Ukraine.
“I remember that day as if it were yesterday, I was trembling,” says this 26-year-old resident of Moscow, whose body stiffens at the memory of that moment.
Unable to concentrate, she took a week off and ended up quitting her job.
As the second anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine approaches, relatives of the men mobilized in Russia are increasingly calling for their return.
With their pickets and emotional messages relayed on social networks, it has become difficult for the authorities to ignore this sensitive issue.
Maria Semionova made numerous appeals to President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials, to no avail.
One day in December, wrapped in a scarf, she placed white carnations on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, near the Kremlin walls, in protest with ten other women.
PHOTO OLGA MALTSEVA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This woman’s coat reads: “Bring my husband home.” I can not stand it anymore. » These women come to lay flowers at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.
” I love it. I can’t abandon him,” she explains.
When her companion returned for his first leave, she saw him “harder”. On his second leave, he was drunk half the time and had nightmares about the front.
“No one listens to us”
Several groups on social networks intended for relatives of mobilized soldiers have emerged in recent months. One of them, a Telegram channel called “The Way Back Home,” has more than 38,000 subscribers.
Their activism is largely ignored by state media, but it is a difficult subject for the Kremlin, which is keen to display an image of unity around Mr Putin ahead of his inevitable re-election in March’s presidential election. 2024.
“We are not heard by our government, by our television channels, no one listens to us,” regrets one of these women, Alexandra, a 34-year-old cook living in the Murmansk region, in the Russian Far North.
“But I have no choice but to do what I do,” explains this pregnant woman, already a mother of two children, who left eastern Ukraine in 2018 to settle in Russia with her husband, a minor.
He was mobilized in October 2022, shortly after Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a call for 300,000 reservists which had caused a wave of emigration of young men.
The salary of those mobilized, around 200,000 rubles (2000 euros), is high for Russia. But much of that money goes toward purchasing additional equipment to supplement what the military provides them.
The burden is difficult for many women to bear, especially when they have children.
The end of the “nightmare”
Antonina, 41, says she had to quit her job and start seeing a therapist after her partner was called away. She gained 25 kilos and suffered a micro-stroke.
“Everything collapsed,” she sums up. “I try not to watch the news…I just wait for his calls.” »
According to her, her partner, who suffers from a peptic ulcer, is sent on a mission with other sick or injured men.
Antonina and other women are opposed to a second wave of mobilization, even if it was the only way for their loved ones to return from the front.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’m going through,” she says.
If none of the three women interviewed by AFP have been the subject of reprisals from those in power for their activism, they know that they are playing with fire in a context of massive repression.
“I’m afraid my husband will be killed for what I’m doing. I am afraid that my children will be sent to an orphanage, that I will be imprisoned,” says Alexandra.
They all said they had been subjected to insults online, from supporters and opponents of the Russian campaign in Ukraine.
“I am alone in my struggle,” laments Alexandra, to whom many friends have turned their backs. But she has no intention of giving up.
“I just want this nightmare to end. People shouldn’t kill each other,” she says.
“We made a terrible mistake” in Ukraine, she thinks. “I really want people to realize this and for there to be peace.”