Stop throwing our men like meat to the front line, mothers and wives tell Putin

‘Our mobilised [men] are being sent like lambs to the slaughter to storm fortified areas’

A GROUP of Russian women have appealed to Vladimir Putin to stop sending their husbands and sons to the front line like “meat” without adequate training.

In a video shared online, the women say the mobilisation of new recruits has been a betrayal, after the Russian president said they would not be sent to the front line immediately.

The women say their sons, husbands and brothers have been “thrown like meat” to storm fortified areas in Ukraine. One group of Russians was sent to fight without any ammunition, a separate report claimed.

In the video shared by the independent Telegram news channel SOTA, the women can be seen standing in a group holding a sign in Russian that says “580 Separate Howitzer Artillery Division”, dated March 11 2023. One of the women says: “My husband… is located on the line of contact with the enemy. Our mobilised [men] are being sent like lambs to the slaughter to storm fortified areas – five at a time, against 100 heavily armed enemy men.”

Putin ordered the mobilisation of more than 300,000 men in September, to the shock of ordinary Russians.

Of those drafted, many have perished. Among the reasons for the high casualties have been poor training and a lack of equipment. Recruits have reported being sent to battle with old weapons and unsuitable clothing.

A team of independent Russian journalists called the No Future project said authorities have tried to cover up the deaths of dozens of mobilised Russians from Volgograd who were sent to fight without ammunition. The group said new recruits are deprived of first aid kits and hot food, while in one training session the men “played on their phones” for two weeks.

The woman in the clip said: “They are prepared to serve their homeland but according to the specialisation they’ve trained for, not as storm-troopers.

“We ask that you pull back our guys from the line of contact and provide the artillerymen with artillery and ammunition.”

The group’s criticism of the Kremlin comes amid growing anger among Russian wives and mothers over the war.

In a rare acknowledgment of government failings, Putin told a group of mothers he felt “their pain” at a choreographed meeting. He has also said “mistakes” were made in the call-up to reinforcements.

Despite this, the Kremlin has hinted at a second mobilisation. MPS have proposed a law to give Russia’s National Guard more power to enforce military draft orders and another that will allow property to be confiscated from Russians who flee abroad.