By: Reese Yan

The war between Ukraine and Russia has been going on for months. It first started in February, now it’s August, and they’re still battling. Even though it was Russia who attacked Ukraine first, citizens from Russia who signed up to be in the military have suffered greatly.

Many sons and husbands have died during the war, which has left many mad, sad, and overwhelmed with grief. For instance, a man named Yevgeny Chubarin told his mom that he would be joining the Russian army to fight Ukraine. His mom begged him not to go but went anyway. The next day, the 24- year-old stone-factory worker, was killed.

According to the independent Russian outlet Mediazona and BBC News, about 5,185 soldiers have died as of July 29. And about 15,000 died in total as of now. Stories similar to Yevgeny Chubarin are taboo in Russia, where the grief of many families is buried beneath the state media. Authorities said that independent journalists who speak to bereaved relatives or cover funerals have been arrested and were told that showing such “tears and suffering” is bad for public morale. They also ordered the shutdown of any online memorial pages.

People are furious with the way the government has acted. For instance, Sergei Dustin of Baltiysk refused to keep quiet about howthings are going. He said his daughter, Alexandra, married a marine named Maksim and became a widow at 19. He vented all his anger on Facebook, saying Russians needed to ask why their sons were dying. Baltiysk described 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.”

The pain and suffering of Russia’s citizens are unimaginable. Although families whose sons or husbands have been lost will probably never be the same again, hopefully, the suffering ends soon.