The city that counts the damage from the war in Ukraine
Makiivka is a city in Ukraine that was the main topic in the world media a few weeks ago. Ukraine's armed forces said hundreds of Russian soldiers were killed on New Year's Eve in the city located in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region. In a rare move, pro-Russian officials are admitting their losses.
Among the Russian soldiers killed were several new recruits who had just joined the Russian army. British weekly "Economist" depicted the scene from the municipal cemetery in Novokuybyshevsk, where the Russian soldiers were buried.
One of them was 27-year-old Dennis, a young father and engineer who worked at the local oil refinery. He was recruited by the Russian army in September. Already in December he was sent to the front in Ukraine. His career as a soldier lasted only six days, as he was stationed in the military barracks in Makiivka, and on New Year's Eve those facilities were hit by HIMARS missiles, which are owned by the Ukrainians.
Although his mother mourned his loss, she says she is happy because she got his whole body back, something that other Russian mothers don't get. Some of the dead Russian soldiers can only be identified by DNA analysis.
"Dennis, my son!" I told him not to go, I begged him. But he has already made up his mind, he told me that he has nowhere to run," said his mother in tears.
Almost a month after the Makiivka attack, the exact number of victims remains a mystery. Families of the dead are burying their sons in towns across the Samara region in southwestern Russia, where most of the soldiers from the barracks lived.
According to the pro-Russian authorities from Donetsk, 89 soldiers died, but they refuse to publish the list of the dead for now. The Ukrainians claim that over 400 soldiers were killed. Dennis' parents also fear the death toll is much higher.
In today's Russia, words are expensive. The families of the dead refuse to speak for fear of losing financial compensation. But Anna (a fictitious name to protect her face), the sister of a murdered Russian soldier, decided to speak to The Economist about the anger that reigns among the families of Russian soldiers.
"Commanders have accused soldiers of giving away positions using a mobile phone," she said. "In fact, it's a story of their criminal negligence."
Earlier in the world media it was announced that the Russian soldiers from Makiivka secretly they used mobile phones discovered the position of the temporary base and practically guided the four Ukrainian missiles that hit the building, killing possibly hundreds of people, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Anna says her brother managed to escape with minor injuries after the explosion happened. The soldier next to him died immediately. Young Anna says that she does not understand at all what Russia is fighting for, and as she says, the rest of the soldiers' families felt the same way.
Although the soldiers' families have often sent letters to the Kremlin to end the conflict, so far this has had no effect. Ruslan Leviev, an independent researcher, says that official Moscow has no such plans at all, but on the contrary, several figures associated with the "special operation" are openly calling for greater mobilization.
"Russia has yet to deploy all 300.000 troops it mobilized in the first wave. "Those who arrived managed to stabilize the front," says Leviev.
"The Economist" writes that with the appointment of Valery Gerasimov, Russia will likely require a new mobilization. If that actually happens, then there could be another wave of men leaving Russia en masse. After the first call for mobilization, it is believed that over 700 thousand men left the country.
The Makiivka massacre has made many ordinary Russians question the cost of fighting in Ukraine. Hence, the Russian authorities strictly control what is published. Anna, the injured soldier's sister, predicts that any attempt to recruit more men from the region will be met with strong resistance from their family members. But she said it was too much to expect a public outcry. People are too atomized, too scared. "You need a strong collective spirit to protest, and we have a bit of a problem with that," she said.
More on the topic:
Russian soldiers from Makivka discovered the New Year's greetings on the phone!?
Hiding from Putin's mobilization calls, a young Russian man moved into the forest
