Mothers of Russian soldiers have accused the Kremlin of using their sons as “cannon fodder” in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Video shows Russian governor Sergey Tsivilev on stage in a gymnasium in Siberia while women accused the government of “deceiving” their sons, according to Newsweek.
“We were all deceived,” one woman said. “Why were our boys sent there? They were not trained. Look at these boys, they’re 20-years-old.”
Tsivilev repeated the Kremlin’s lie that the invasion is a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and detain the country’s neo-Nazi leaders.
“This is a special operation and at the moment, no one can comment on the special operation, which is the right thing to do. They were used…”
“Used?” one mother called out. “So our children were used?”
Tsivilev claimed that conclusions or criticisms cannot be made of an ongoing military operation and that “it will end very soon”, to which one mother shouted “when everyone is killed.”
“We were all deceived, all deceived. They were sent there as cannon fodder,” another mother said.
According to RFE/RL the confrontation took place at the training base of riot police units, whose officers were killed or captured in combat in Ukraine during the invasion.
