Putin meets with Russian military moms — but not the ones criticizing the war mobilization | CBC News

When Russian President Vladimir Putin sat at a table with more than a dozen military mothers outside Moscow on Friday, he expressed sympathy for the women who had lost loved ones fighting in Ukraine.

His pre-recorded meeting with a select group of women hand-picked by the Kremlin was a deliberate move to try and show that Putin understands the plight of hundreds of thousands of Russian families whose sons, husbands and brothers were drafted to fight in Ukraine. .

As they sat gathered around a table set with tea and cakes, Putin told the group "we share your pain" and that he called the meeting ahead of when Russia celebrates Mothers Day, on Nov.

Left off the guest list were women who have been publicly demanding to speak to Russia's military leadership about the draft — and, in some cases, learn the whereabouts of men they say were sent to Ukraine and have not been heard from since. .

Her grassroots group has been petitioning the Russian government for weeks, urging officials to address their concerns around a mobilization drive that saw 300,000 men drafted this fall, with a third of them already sent into combat, according to officials. .

She has made public appeals, along with other women who have recorded videos that are circulating on social media. .

Tsukanova says while the group doesn't believe the war benefits Russia, the women aren't directly protesting the conflict. Instead, they are calling out the leadership for what they see as myriad problems with Russia's military, including poor training, inadequate equipment and general mistreatment of the men.

1/ Relatives of mobilised men from Vologda have issued an appeal in a video and on VK for their men to be returned from a "bloody meat grinder" in Ukraine where they were bombed and shelled by both the Ukrainians and their own side.

Newly mobilized soldiers show the bulletproof vests they have been given, and say that they can only protect against soft air guns.

<br><br>They add that their helmets have been produced in China and are probably worthless too.<br><br>Morale is far from great

25 purported to show soldiers near Moscow going through a stash of food found at a military warehouse. As they sort through boxes of tea, biscuits and canned meat, someone can he heard off camera commenting about the "jars and jars" of food. 

"I have been defending the rights of military personnel for 20 years," he told CBC in an interview from Vilnius, Lithuania, where he moved after leaving Moscow earlier this year. 

He said many of the complaints were about recruits who were never given the mandatory medical examination required by law before they were sent off to training. 

"People suddenly realize that they were sent to war and understand that the Russian army is not what they show on TV."

During what appeared to be a staged exchange, Shoigu told Putin that 300,000 men had been mobilized and that 82,000 had already been sent to Ukraine. 

Shoigu admitted that in the early stages, there were problems with "various types of supplies," but claimed the issues have been resolved. 

Putin replied that problems were "probably inevitable" given the scale of the mobilization.