"We don't want to be meat." Relatives of those mobilized in Kursk came out to protest. They demand the withdrawal of soldiers from the front line in the Lugansk region

The regional governor received the wives and mothers of the mobilized

In Kursk, for two days in a row, relatives of those mobilized, who were sent to Svatovo, go to the building of the military prosecutor's office and the regional administration with demands to save their loved ones with transfer. Today they came to an appointment with the regional governor Roman Starovoit. “Verstka” contacted several of them.

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According to relatives of those mobilized, on the afternoon of November 8, about 50 people gathered near the building of the military prosecutor's office. Some of them went inside to submit applications. Afterwards they went to Deriglazov Avenue, where the governor was supposed to open a new road. They managed to get an appointment with him.

Relatives of those mobilized told Vorstka that their loved ones were sent from Kurs to Voronezh in mid-October to undergo combat training. Two weeks later, on November 1, they were transported to the Belgorod region and distributed along the front line.

“My husband called for the last time on November 2 and said that they seemed to be taking them to Lisichansk,” says Yulia, the wife of mobilized Kursk resident Nikolai Biryukov. “They were supposedly hiding from someone, but he didn’t say anything else—the conversation lasted literally a minute.” No one knows anything further. Most of those who were taken from my husband’s unit, from our company, that is, do not get in touch.”

Another resident of the Kursk region and participant in the gathering, Kristine Robakidze, told Vorstka that her husband Alexey Pupynin called her the day before, on November 7. According to her, after several people died and after they learned of large losses on the front line, her husband's company mutinied . She gave an audio recording of a conversation with her husband to Vorstka.

“We are already considered missing, people are being sent to slaughter. We started a riot, we are not going anywhere. We're staying here. This is the *** Ministry of Defense. Help us. Very difficult. We don't want to be meat. <…> There are no weapons at all. The artillery is working, but it is hitting the wrong place, just nearby. We have weapons from 1985 . This armor is pierced by shrapnel. People’s helmets were simply shattered,” Alexey Pupynin said on the phone to his mother and wife.

The day before, on November 7, about 20 people also went to the building of the military prosecutor's office and the administration of the Kursk region. Then they recorded two video messages. Both videos are available to “Layout”. In them, relatives of those mobilized say that their relatives tell them about “heaps of corpses” and barrier detachments consisting of contract soldiers.

“They have no opportunity to retreat, because their own people will shoot them ,” said participants in the gatherings on November 7. “They sent me where the contract soldiers, the Chechens, and all the Wagnorovites who refuse, the very specialists, don’t want to go. Our mobilized guys who had no experience were thrown there. Please help, we are like cannon fodder: half killed, half wounded. Save our husbands."

Ksenia, the wife of mobilized Andrei Braginets, says that on the evening of November 7, when relatives gathered near the city administration, employees ignored their complaints. “We stood near the entrance, shouted “help us,” and then the employees came out, jumped into the cars and drove away,” says Ksenia.

At a meeting with the governor, relatives asked Governor Roman Starovoit to “take the guys away from the line of fire.” One of the mobilized contacted his relatives directly during today’s meeting with Governor Roman Starovoyt and the military commissar of the region Vladimir Rodionov. “He told about his situation, Starovoyt heard everything. And he said that they would look into it,” Marina Rekunova told Vorstka.

The situation in Kursk is reminiscent of what happened the day before in the Voronezh region. There, relatives of the mobilized also went to the military prosecutor's office, and then were received by the governor. Relatives demanded the return from the front line of those mobilized, whose battalion was defeated near Makeyevka, Lugansk region.

As “Verstka” established , a battalion mobilized from the Voronezh region was defeated near Svatovo. We are talking about the first motorized rifle battalion, which included at least three companies. According to the soldiers themselves, hundreds of people died.

In addition, according to Vorstka, at least 42 mobilized from the Voronezh region could be taken to Zaitsevo, where they are allegedly being kept in basements.

At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense called reports of losses near Makeyevka “disinformation” of the “Kiev regime.”

Cover collage: Rim Saifutdinov

Editorial "Layout"