You're reading: Soldiers’ mothers seek help for sons caught in crossfire on Russian border

The Ukrainian forces slowly freeing cities in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast can credit much of their success to several army units stationed near the Russian border to prevent the Kremlin from reinforcing their fighters. 

But those Ukrainian soldiers are getting shelled every day from all sides – by the Kremlin-backed insurgents in Ukraine and by other soldiers firing from Russian territory. Day after day, they suffer incoming attacks from Grad multiple rocket launchers.

It’s not a fair fight, since Ukrainian soldiers are banned from returning fire that comes at them from Russian territory. The policy is in place because of the fear of triggering a full-scale Russian military invasion. Instead, the soldiers dig deep trenches while their supplies and equipment dwindle. Rearming them is dangerous, either from land or by air.

“My Ivan says they are being shelled 2-3 times per day,” said soldier’s mother Zinayida Shulayeva. “He has no food now and the water supply would be enough only for few days.”

Shulayeva’s two sons, Andriy and Ivan, were conscripted to serve  in the 79th Mykolayiv-based brigade. She showed cell phone photo of them posing in front of a military car later burned by the shelling. Ivan escaped with a concussion.  

Fearing for their lives, Shulayeva and more than 30 other mothers and wives of the soldiers came from Mykolayiv to Kyiv last week, demanding that the authorities bring their loved ones back home or at least send them to less dangerous places. The women believe they did enough after spending more than 20 days under constant shelling while guarding 75 kilometers of the border.

The desperate women are already staying for almost a week at a Kyiv Officers’ House sleeping at the mattresses on the floor. After they filed pleas to Ministry of Defense, General Staff, National Security and Defense Council and President Petro Poroshenko without receiving any result they feel depressed.

Army spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky explained to the Kyiv Post that there are no plans for full-scale rotation but rather aims for “restoration of combat power” for soldiers, who feel physically and morally too tired to go on service. “In a majority of brigades there are just several people who refuse to go on defending their motherland,” he said.

Mothers and wives of soldiers serving at 79th brigade stand on the stairs of Officer’s House in Kyiv.
(Courtesy)

But for exhausted mothers, this is not a valid argument. They say their sons have to fight in rags and eat frogs and snails to survive without a steady food supply and sometimes even without water. The planes to resupply with food and ammunition fly rarely after the July 17 shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines MH17, killing 298 people.    

To even carry out wounded soldiers, the Ukrainians need to negotiate with Russian border guards for passage through neutral space.

Sometimes the soldiers have to cross the border into Russia to save their lives.

Early on Aug. 4, some 437 servicemen including soldiers of the 72nd airborne brigade and border guards, unexpectedly entered Russia to survive the attacks.

“On 1-2 August the OSCE Observer Mission received calls from officers of the 72nd mechanized infantry brigade who claimed that around 600 Ukrainian servicemen were surrounded by separatists and left without ammunition, fuel, and food,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement. It added that all of these troops were planning to go back to Ukraine and some already returned.

Dmytrashkivsky said it is up to prosecutors to decide whether these soldiers would be responsible for leaving their duty and destroying their arms and vehicles, which they did before crossing into Russia.   

On July 25, some 40 servicemen of 51th brigade also went to Russian territory after weeks spent under heavy shelling. Upon return, they were placed on trial in Zaporizhzhia and accused of desertion.

The
psychological state of many soldiers of 79th brigade is very bad, their
relatives say.  

“My son says – mom, go back home, nobody will take us back, nobody cares,” Shulayeva said.

Liubyna Chernova came to Kyiv from Zaporizhzhia to support her son-in-law Roman, who used to be an information-technology specialist before being conscripted to the 79th brigade in late March. Since then she saw him only briefly, when he came home for a few days to sort out papers for vote at presidential election on May 25.

“It was hard to recognize him — he lost 19 kilos, was wearing beard and mustache as he had no water to shave at a war zone,” she remembers.

Now Chernova spends days and nights together with Roman’s mother reporting her daughter on any progress on his salvation. She is determined to stay as long as it’s needed but starts crying, when says there are no good news to report so far.

“The worst thing is that our children have lost hope in good outcome of all this,” she said.

 Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]