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 a proof as to why an 18-year-old conscript was concerned in fight.
All through the warfare in Ukraine, the Kremlin promised that conscripts would not be despatched to warfare. However in Valentin’s case, the warfare got here to him.
Valentin, 18, died practically a yr into his army service
He had been deployed to the Kursk area as a part of his army 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 pinnacle.
“It must be specifically skilled folks there, not youngsters,” Elena says.
“They have been taken from house, from a mom’s nest, and dropped at some unknown place, the place there’s taking pictures.
“What sort of warrior is he? He is not a warrior.”
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 straight.
“A very powerful query was: ‘What have been our youngsters doing there?’ However I did not get any response,” she says.
“At that second I simply needed to take the entire world and switch it the other way up.
“Whoever says they’re obligated for army service, what do they owe? What did my son take from the Motherland to pay a debt along with his life?”
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Valentin was a couple of weeks wanting his nineteenth birthday when he died, and practically a yr into his army service. Elena did not need him to signal on so quickly – head boy at college, he may have deferred conscription till after additional research – however she says he was excited to serve and insisted.
Photos of him in his parade uniform are in every single place in her house in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles northeast of Moscow. His blue beret is perched on a shelf. And Elena nonetheless hopes that sooner or later he’ll stroll by means of the door.
Valentin, who had been head boy at college, was eager to serve
The graveyard Valentin is buried in
“I nonetheless watch for him to come back again house, regardless that I noticed his physique. I nonetheless cannot consider it,” she says, tears operating down her face.
“Typically I sit and assume who my grandchildren may have been. It is not possible to stay like this. It is 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 because the 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 army graves there, every one 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 concerning the warfare as a result of criticising it could possibly land you in jail. However Elena is decided to stop different moms from struggling the identical expertise.
“I would like just one factor – for all youngsters to come back house,” she stated.
“I would like them to listen to us and provides us again our youngsters in the identical state we gave them, not chilly.”
