By: Bryan Li

Men who fought and died in the war are mourned by their families while the Russian Government hides the casualties and forbids private funerals.

The Washington Post claims that one such man was Yevgeny Chubarin, whose mother begged him not to join the military. He did, and was killed the day after entering Ukraine. Families all over Russia are experiencing this loss, while the government covers up the casualties and desperately recruit new soldiers.

Russia’s outlet Mediazona has claimed that only 5,185 soldiers have died in the war, but according to The Washington Post, the CIA and British intelligence agency think that a “conservative estimate” would be above 15,000.

The Washington Post says that some families grieve quietly, while some vent their anger in other, louder, ways. Sergei Dustin’s daughter’s fiancée died in the war, and now Dustin has taken to insulting Russia’s government on social media, saying that they are “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.”

Dustin refuses to hear the details, or rather the lies, about how his son in law died. He says how his daughter has shut herself away and that “This whole story just brings sorrow and tragedy for everyone.”

Some people have found ways to fight back against the government, The Washington Post says. Wives of Russian soldiers make videos that demand the government send their husbands back to Russia. Activist groups are helping hundreds of soldiers break their contracts that force them to serve in the war. Still, more people die each day and the citizens don’t know.

“Oh god, please stop this war. How many of our guys can die?” Yevgenia Yakovleva, a citizen, said on social media. “My soul is torn from pain. I don’t know how to accept this, survive and live with it.”