"They will kill us." Ukrainian front, captivity, military unit

After information about the participation of conscripts in hostilities in Ukraine was confirmed, their families through the Ministry of Defense began to seek their return. Nobody has reached the house yet - the warning conscripts remain in the units to last the deadline. The mothers of soldiers, who instead of the exercises were in the war in Ukraine, told the North. Real to the correspondent that they had to send their sons money for clothes and shoes, and the command forced them to sign a contract.

Mothers ( almost everyone agreed to speak with the North. Reali on the terms of anonymity, asking to change all the names, all real data is at the disposal of the editorial office. - cf. ) Refiren repeat the same thing: "Son the son there." According to their information, no one plans to let go home earlier than official demobilia. Moreover: it is far from the fact that the status of veterans, promised by President Putin participants in this war, will spread to conscripts driven by commanders to the war zone. Formally, they were "in the exercises" in the Belgorod or Kursk region, it was impossible to send them to Ukraine by law. But they were there.

"I will glue the boots - and normal"

“I need my son to come home.” So that he just return home. Healthy and with a normal psyche, - Svetlana repeats over and over again.

Her son was drafted into the army in July last year. In the military registration and enlistment office of the Little Karelian town, he was equipped with boots, which were small for him.

“I tell him: well, what can you do, let's buy, what you need there,” says Svetlana. - Come on, he says, I will manage. Then he called from the unit, boasts: put on some boots, he says, I will glue a little-and it will be normal. And the other guys-who bought shovels on the money sent by his parents, who told me some scrapers, Pasha told me. That is, they should provide them to everyone, but they ask their parents to send money for everything. I was surprised, and my son said: "Mom, there is such a poverty, we ourselves must buy." Well, of course, we will give the latter to send him money only. As the son was in Ukraine, I do not know at all. They all told them that they were sent to exercises. They really first went as if to exercises. He always called me on the weekend, and then on a weekday he sent a voice message: they were ordered for teachings to buy warm clothes - boots, socks, everything else to dress warmer. I was still surprised: how so, they are sent naked, or what? Shouldn't that in the army provide everything necessary? Well, and I sent him money for this, he also sent photos that he bought a hat, socks.

The last time Paul called his mother on February 23, she congratulated on the holiday. Then the conscripts were still on the exercises, and there was no question about the fact that they would go across the border somewhere. However, Svetlana assumes that the son could have hidden negative news from her-he always has “everything is good”: “I only knew firsthand, the boys who said with him, to their mothers, they spoke completely different.”

“After February 23 - everything was gone,” tell the mother of the conscript. - I called only in early March. And I found out that he is in Ukraine. It turned out that there they were persuaded to sign contracts, and forced, and scared. Whatever they promised. And they scared that otherwise they would be deserters. Pavlik did not sign, but one of the guys signed. Thank God the scandal rose, began to withdraw conscripts from there. Then, in our chat of “mothers”, someone wrote that some of the children are turning back to the Sumy, and those who would refuse to go, as if they were shot. I don’t know if this is true, but it was very scary to read. I will calm down only when I see my son. Now for us, mothers, they say that the boys will go for some rehabilitation. Allegedly, psychologists will now work with them. I called the Ministry of Defense - I also advised me to go to a psychologist. What psychologist will help here? If they survived that they need a psychologist, why not let them go home now?

"Immediately the phone was blocked"

Valentine, a conscript from Karelia, should not have entered the army. He studied at the university, in 2021 he planned to get a promising profession of a programmer, his parents began to look for his place of work. But because of Covid, he launched his studies, he had to take the academician. And in July 2021, instead of a diploma, he received a summons from the military commissariat. By the beginning of the war, Valya served seven months.

“When they were only brought to Ukraine, they immediately said: keep in mind, you weren’t here,” his mother Lyudmila reports what the son managed to tell on the phone. - They began to demand that they sign contracts. That is, they offered them contracts from the very beginning of the service, promised a bunch of all kinds of benefits. Both the apartment and the salary were promised some huge salary. Later, when I called the Ministry of Defense, they ask me there: is he a contractor? No, I answer. Exactly, they ask, did not sign the contract? Yes, for sure! I forbade him to do this, no matter how you persuade! We are not the situation to stay in the army. He has a promising specialty, he will return - he will receive a diploma. We have already bought an apartment for him.

Especially persistently, conscripts were convinced to sign the contract when they had already come to Ukraine, scared that all the refuseniks would go to the tribunal, says Lyudmila. She believes that the commanders should be responsible for such pressure: "The son called me: mom, if anything - know that I myself did not sign anything."

“They went to the exercises somewhere on February 6,” she recalls. - Before this day, for two, my son called me and said that he needed warm clothes. They say they were told that there will be no "shifts", we must buy everything ourselves, otherwise they will go, what they arrived in. We sent our son money for panties, socks, for thermal underwear, for T-shirts-for everything. Until toothpaste - everything had to be bought. And then, as I understood, they were urgently disrupted from these exercises that all the things remained in his tent camp. And all the time that they were in Ukraine, they did not wash, did not shave, did not take off their clothes. The socks dried on themselves. And they slept on the ground. Even when they went to the exercises, in February, my son called me and asked if the war would begin. Well, the conversations were such then. Until the last, I did not believe that this could happen. He also reassured him: you are conscripts, in any case they will not send you there, have no right.

Like other mothers of conscripts, Lyudmila heard her son last time on the eve of the war. On the evening of February 22, Valentine called and said that they were sent to Ukraine.

“I didn’t believe it again,” the mother recalls. - I say: Surely you will be put on the border in the cordon. And then there is silence. On the morning of the 24th, I saw Putin’s performance on TV ... This shock was ... now I already remember some kind of snatches, I only remember what a panic was in. On TV, they said how everything was fine, but only one thing in my head is knocking: why the son does not call. I was honest to watch something except the TV. I saw one video on the Internet - I recognized the boy from our city among the prisoners. I felt so scared ... I threw the job and ran from all my legs to the military registration and enlistment office. I ask: is this some kind of fake? They answer me there: no, this is really our boy, in our city he was called. I felt completely bad.

Lyudmila called the part where her son serves. The commander and the commander did not answer.

“In the end, I got into the duty unit, they only heard that I was a military man’s mother, they immediately cut off the conversation,” she says. - And then my phone was apparently blocked, because I could no longer get through. There was no information, I could not know anything about my son. Then it turned out that there are a lot of such mothers. We created a chat, we have our own language conspiratorial: “blackbirds” is the part where my son serves, “eagles” - this is part in the same village across the road. It turned out that of both “there” sent conscripts. On March 2, the son called, finally, and said that they were somewhere near Kiev. And again the phone fell silent. And on March 10, he called in such a voice that I got colder at once. “Mom,” he says, “we are thrown into Sumy, they will kill us there.” I did not understand anything, but I hear in my voice how scared he is. Such horror was in the voice, it was transmitted to me. That's when I began to call the Ministry of Defense, and they asked me about the contract. And then they say: the information is accepted, wait.

"Is this your son in captivity?"

Nikolai Polshchikov from Ryazan was wounded in Ukraine and was captured. For a week his mother Elena did not know where he was, and did not find a place for herself. Then I saw my son in a video recorded by the Ukrainians.

“I no longer know who to ask, who else to turn to,” she says. - The son called and said that he was captured. He says: Mom, take us from here as you like, because we do not know if negotiations are underway about us. Ukrainians were allowed to call, allowed us to talk for three minutes. Well, what could he say? "Don’t worry, mom, I'm captured, they feed here, I'm fine." Call, says, in the Red Cross, Putin, anywhere, are they going to take us from here. And I was just on this day, but even before his call, I found out that he was captured. Then she spoke with another dad, whose son was captured by Sasha Morozov, and with one mother, they say the same thing.

Nikolai studied at college for an accountant, at one time he and his mother worked together in the same store. He was a cashier seller. Then he quit to pass exams and get the rights, "because further we knew that they would call for military service," Elena explains.

- He was preparing for her. Who knew that the service would be so ... - the mother sighs.

Nicholas serves in the Taman division, in Naro-Fominsk near Moscow. On January 30, they were sent to the exercises to Kursk, from there to Belgorod. With the teachings, he called his mother, said that they painted some notes on the BMP. It was back in early February.

“There was no war, but they already painted Z with Z cars. They were explained that this is also a part of the exercises: if there is a battle, it is necessary not to shoot their own,” says Elena. - And on February 23, my son spoke to me - and disappeared. I called only the 28th: we said, in Ukraine. How is it, I ask, in Ukraine, there is war?! You're SHI! And they were dragged there by deception. None of the guys knew where they were going. They were told - to the exercises. Well, exercises and teachings, they went. And they crossed the border - it was also kind of like teaching. And then Vladimir Vladimirovich announced that this was a special operation. They did not sign any contracts, nothing, I know for sure, he would definitely tell me, but I would not allow. And on March 7, my son was captured. A week - a week! - I did not know anything about it, no one informed me, no one called from his commanders. And at work I go out for lunch, and our one boy asks me: "Is it true that your Kolya is captured?" And he shows me a video: there, my Kolya speaks like some kind of alien language. I felt bad. I ran home, call the unit, to Naro-Fominsk, and there only the psychologist Marina Vladimirovna answered. And she confirmed that my son was really captured for a week, since March 7. Why didn’t anyone tell me where he is?! Then I found out that he was also wounded in the shoulder. I know that he has already been treated there, but his heart is still out of place. Lord, he is only 20 years old, and he has already experienced that! It will turn him over all my life ... I ask, I beg you, to whom I just call ... I wrote a statement to the prosecutor’s office, I’m calling to the Ministry of Defense constantly. They only answer me: your business is being considered. And what is to me with their "examined"?! I need my son.

"Better sign it"

Cyril was called up in the fall of 2021 - by the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, he managed to serve three and a half months.

“Back in December, my son called me and said: we will soon be taken to the exercises in the field of two or three months,” says his mother Tatyana. - In January they were really taken to Kursk, the son called from there. He serves me a driver in the RMO - a company of material support. Somehow he calls and says: we are already under Belgorod. And on February 23, at seven o’clock in the evening, the son calls and says: Mom, I was loaded with ammunition and sent to Ukraine. I did not sleep the night, as if I felt something. And in the morning I found out that there was war.

For two weeks, she did not know anything about her son. And in early March, his friend suddenly called: "Aunt Tanya, Cyril cannot get through to you, but the matter is urgent. He asks to sound the alarm, because he is forced to sign a contract." Then, when Tatyana contacted her son, he retold to her what the commanders said: you better sign the contract, because you will still stay with us here, and under the contract you will at least pay some money for it. Cyril refused to sign the contract. One of the officers gave him a phone to call his mother: "Say that you are forced to sign a contract, let her pull you out of here."

“I don’t know what kind of officer this is, but thanks to him,” Tatyana thanks. -Actually, they offered him a contract from the very beginning, even before Ukraine. He called me and asked me whether it was worth signing: they promise, they say that he would only patrol something, but the money will be paid good and they will give housing. I told him: in no case. He has a good profession, he has a car mechanic. And there is work, he is waiting for him, he worked there for three years, and he began in the technical school. You have no idea what he knows how to make from the car. They built the house with dad together. He is my smart girl. So I know for sure that he did not sign anything, he has nothing to do in this army. In general, I got through to the Ministry of Defense, found some kind of hot line. Told them everything I think.

After the parents of conscripts began to call the Ministry of Defense, 412 people were taken out of Ukraine, including Cyril. He returned with temperature and insomnia, his other colleagues - who came with frostbitten legs, some with pneumonia. They lived in the Belgorod region in tents.

- He only said to me: "Mom, it was very scary there." He saw a body there without a head, someone without legs ...-says Tatyana. - They ran there with forests there, and bombed them from the aircraft on top. They really did not have products, drypikes - and those expired. There is, he says, it is impossible, but it had to be. I say: the son in the company of mattress served, he handed these rations himself, so he saw everything with his own eyes. And in this soldering rice, tea, but what to do with them? They had no water, they drowned snow to drink. They could not even brush their teeth, because when they were sent to Ukraine, even personal belongings were not allowed to take from the camp. The son as he left the camp load - so he did not return there anymore. They did not have warm clothes either. That's what mine went to the exercises, then I wore it in Ukraine. And they slept there on the ground.

Cyril was still lucky, his mother believes. Around him were military personnel much older by age-someone served on the contract for a long time, someone was in Chechnya, and experienced people protected the boy: "And they did not have to run with other stupid boys. Probably, this saved him."

“I still got to their commander,” says Tatyana. - He, as with other mothers, refused to speak with me, but I began to write to him SMS. I ask the question: "Where is my son?" He replies: "I am in another area." Me: "But he is not alone there, some commander should be with him?" In response - silence.

The losses of the Russian army during the war in Ukraine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the last time published March 25, on that day, according to the agency, they amounted to 1351 people. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine called other figures on April 3 - about 18 300 murdered Russian troops. According to the US State Department, this meaning is closer to 10 thousand. In captivity at the end of March, according to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk, there were 562 military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The Russian side does not disclose the data on how many military personnel are captured.