«Vladimir Putin issued a decree that my husband must be there (in Ukraine). I would like to know when he will issue a decree that my husband must be home».
That of Maria Andreyeva it is a desperate plea. Wife of one of the many Russian soldiers involved in the Ukrainian invasion, the woman showed up in front of the Russian president’s electoral headquarters to ask for her husband’s return to his homeland. In a gesture of defiance against a government that has made Russia a country hostile to those who openly criticize the war. Andreyeva – Reuters tells on her website – was involved in a heated exchange with another woman, who told her that Russian soldiers in Ukraine were defending the homeland and that she should pray for them. “So what’s the next step? The Ministry of Defense has spent its money, now we have to squeeze everything out of our kids, squeeze the last drop of life from them? So that they come back to us just like stumps?”, asked Andreyeva. «What will they give me back? A man without legs, without arms, a sick person?” The discussion took place during the visit to Putin’s electoral headquarters by a small delegation from “The Way Home”, an organization of soldiers’ wives who fights for their return from the front. And it testifies to the depth of anger and desperation among the families of some Russian soldiers as the war sees no end in sight. Andreyeva says she has received no response to their appeals and concerns. For this reason, the time has come to intensify the campaign: «All my family’s problems can be solved only with one thing: the demobilization of my husband», she concluded.