In her determined seek for solutions over her son Valentin’s demise, Elena even turned to Vladimir Putin.
She wrote to the Russian president demanding an evidence as to why an 18-year-old conscript was concerned in fight.
All through the conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin promised that conscripts would not be despatched to conflict. However in Valentin’s case, the conflict got here to him.
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Valentin, 18, died practically a yr into his navy service
He had been deployed to the Kursk area as a part of his navy service and stationed on the border.
But it surely was there that Ukrainian forces launched their cross-border incursion in August and one month after it started, Valentin was killed after receiving a shrapnel wound to the top.
“It should be specially trained people there, not children,” Elena says.
“They had been taken from dwelling, from a mom’s nest, and dropped at some unknown place, the place there may be taking pictures.
“What kind of warrior is he? He’s not a warrior.”
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Valentin’s grave
Like different fallen troopers, Russia views Valentin as a hero, however that is no consolation to Elena. All she has are questions, which she wasn’t afraid to place to Mr Putin immediately.
“The most important question was: ‘What were our children doing there?’ But I didn’t get any response,” she says.
“At that moment I just wanted to take the whole world and turn it upside down.
“Whoever says they’re obligated for navy service, what do they owe? What did my son take from the Motherland to pay a debt along with his life?”
Valentin was a couple of weeks in need of his nineteenth birthday when he died, and practically a yr into his navy service. Elena did not need him to signal on so quickly – head boy in school, he may have deferred conscription till after additional examine – however she says he was excited to serve and insisted.
Photos of him in his parade uniform are in all places in her condominium in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles northeast of Moscow. His blue beret is perched on a shelf. And Elena nonetheless hopes that at some point he’ll stroll by way of the door.
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Valentin, who had been head boy in school, was eager to serve
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The graveyard Valentin is buried in
“I still wait for him to come back home, even though I saw his body. I still can’t believe it,” she says, tears operating down her face.
“Sometimes I sit and think who my grandchildren could have been. It’s impossible to live like this. It’s not life.”
Russia does not publish its casualty figures however the UK estimates that greater than 750,000 Russian troops have both been killed or wounded within the three years for the reason that Kremlin’s full-scale invasion started.
Valentin is buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Rybinsk – a 20-minute bus experience for Elena. There are dozens and dozens of navy graves there, each marked with flags. The grave subsequent to Valentin is for a serviceman killed on the identical day as him.
It is uncommon for anybody to talk brazenly in Russia in regards to the conflict as a result of criticising it might land you in jail. However Elena is set to forestall different moms from struggling the identical expertise.
“I want only one thing – for all children to come home,” she mentioned.
“I want them to hear us and give us back our children in the same state we gave them, not cold.”
