A group of about twenty women took a knee in front of the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday to hold a rare protest and demand the return of their mobilized soldiers, husbands and sons from Ukraine.
Groups of women who are relatives of men mobilized by President Vladimir Putin into the Russian army have been holding small-scale protests for months.
The women behind Monday’s protest asked for a meeting with Russia’s new Defense Minister, Andrei Belousov, to demand that the men be allowed to return home and that authorities impose limits on how long soldiers can serve before being allowed leave to get. They also demand that mobilized men be replaced by contract soldiers who have agreed to fight.
Russian authorities labeled the group a “foreign agent” on Friday after several protests. The designation is a tactic used by Moscow to silence dissent.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed a group of women, some with school-age children and children in strollers, kneeling outside the Defense Ministry holding banners. The child of a mobilized soldier was pictured wearing a T-shirt that read “Bring Dad Back.”
A woman who shared a livestream of the protest on social media said protesters had not invited journalists for fear they would be detained. However, one of the videos she shared showed a police van and police officers waiting at the Ministry of Defense. She indicated that the women went home later.
The solution to the problem, her post said, is to “end” the war in Ukraine and stop lying, or carry out a second wave of mobilization and also stop lying, or send back the mobilized men.
Putin ordered a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists after battlefield setbacks in Moscow’s all-out war against Ukraine in September 2022. It led to a rush on flights and long lines at Russia’s borders as men tried to flee.
Aware of the public backlash, the Russian military has increasingly sought to strengthen its armed forces in Ukraine since late 2022 by recruiting more volunteers. Authorities claimed that about 500,000 men had signed contracts with the Defense Ministry last year.
