Infuriated Russian mothers accused President Vladimir Putin of using their sons as “cannon fodder” for his invasion of Ukraine, according to recent video during which they shouted down a regional governor.
The video surfaced Monday, the same day when Russian police detained approximately 4,500 anti-war protesters, according to The Telegraph.
“We were all deceived, all deceived. They were sent there as cannon fodder,” one woman screamed at Sergey Tsivilev, governor of the Kuzbass region in Siberia. “They are young. They were unprepared.”
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Tsivilev reportedly faced the mothers in a school gym while the incensed women berated him and accused Putin’s government of lies.
As The Telegraph notes, it remains unclear whether the shouting women’s sons had been killed in Ukraine.
Tsivilev attempted to present Putin’s invasion as a “special operation” and not a war, but was met with execration.
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“This is a special operation and, at the moment, nobody can give comments about the special operation,” he said. “These guys were used…”
“Used!” interrupted one woman. “So our children were used?”
Russian soldiers who were interrogated after being captured were reportedly under the impression they were undergoing a military exercise before they learned they were participating in a full-scale invasion.
Alexey, a 36-year-old PR manager who protested in Novosibirsk, Siberia, told The Telegraph: “Yes, it is scary, but you have to try not to be afraid,” according to The Telegraph. “But what is happening now in Ukraine is just a catastrophe, a horror.”
