By: Max Yang
The war in Ukraine has caused the deaths of thousands of Russian men of all ages. This have left many families grieving and furious. Families have started to question Russia in the war.
The reported death toll isn’t confirmed, making many current sources unreliable. The Russian media stated that 5,185 men died. On the other hand, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of America and British intelligence all agreed that at least three times that number died.
Many known deaths are ominously reflecting the desperation in the Russian army.
Whenever a death leaks into the public, the Russian military must explain what happened. This gives them a chance to reflect. They get more desperate after each explanation.
Yevgeny Chubarin was 24 when he died in battle. Starting out as a stone-factory worker, he wanted to prove himself as a man and, hopefully, win his ex-wife back. So, he enlisted in the army. Chubarin attended a four-day camp and was given an AK-47. Then, he set off to the bloody battlefield on May 15th. He was killed the next day.
“He knew it was dangerous,” his mother, Nina Chubarina, said in a recent interview. He left on May 11, sending cheerful messages and videos after he arrived in Belgorod in southern Russia. He got little training in his four days there, then made a rushed call home. He had been issued a machine gun and was headed to the war.” That was the last time they spoke to each other. Chubarina is obviously angered but stayed quiet. It is easy to understand that Chubarina is angry because her son died. She decided to stay quiet so she can steer clear of the Russian government’s wrath.
Not everybody resisted the infuriation. Sergei Dustin was part of this group. His daughter, Alexandra, married a marine named Maksim. Alexandra became a widow at age 19 when Maksim sacrificed himself in battle.
Dustin tunneled his exasperation into Facebook, posting that Russians needed to ask why their sons were dying. Describing the war as a “massacre started by crazy old men who think they are great geopoliticians and super strategists, incapable, in fact, of anything but destruction, threats against the world, puffing out their cheeks and endless lies,” he received replies calling him a traitor. His son-in-law left in winter for “training exercises” and somehow ended up in Ukraine. That’s when the war broke out and Maksim died during battle.
Another citizen who didn’t keep cool was the father of a sailor. The sailor, named Yegor Shkrebets, went down with the flagship, Moskva, when it was bombed by Ukrainian missiles.
Yegor was not listed as dead, but instead as “missing”. His father, Dmitry, fought with everything he could so his son could at least get a death certificate. The Russia’s internal security (a force that monitors the inner problems in Russia) even visited him, accusing the father of posting bomb threats on a Russian media sight. After 111 days since Yegor’s death on April 13, Dmitry finally received the certificate.
Russia is not the only side with known deaths. A 59-year-old Soviet trained pilot begged to serve in Ukraine, but to no avail. When the casualties increased, he was finally accepted. He celebrated too early. Shortly after, his plane failed during a practice flight and he died, leaving behind a widow and an 8-year-old daughter.
Resources: Russian families grieve war deaths as Kremlin conceals the true toll – The Washington Post.pdf