‘We want justice’

Wives and mothers of mobilized Russian soldiers protest outside Moscow’s Defense Ministry

A group of wives and mothers of mobilized Russian soldiers picketed outside of the Defense Ministry building in Moscow on June 3. The women brought their children and wore t-shirts and carried signs with slogans like, “Please bring my dad home” and “It’s time for the mobilized to come home,” referring to servicemen who were drafted into the army as part of Russia’s mobilization drive in September 2022.

They also demanded a meeting with Russia’s recently appointed Defense Minister, Andrey Belousov. When police arrived at the scene, the protesters knelt down on the ground. In video footage from the picket, the women can be heard worrying about the prospect of being “put in the police van with the children.”

One of the protesters told Agentstvo that women from a number of different groups joined the rally, with the exception of Put Domoi (“The Way Home”) — a soldiers’ wives initiative that the Russian authorities recently blacklisted as a “foreign agent.”