Situationen i Ukraina just nu, del 3

Andra mammor berättar för henne hur deras söner mot tystnadslöfte fråntas id-handlingar och skickas utklädda till Ukraina. Där de såras och dödas. Ingen vet hur många. En annan organisation för mänskliga rättigheter, Memorial, har lämnat Putin personligen en lista på hundra namn med en begäran att dödsfallen undersökts.
Det Soldatmödrarna gör är att dokumentera tillräckligt många dödscertifikat på soldater att visa duman. För att bevisa att de inte dog i en olycka utan skickats ut i krig i strid mot rysk lag och Genevekonventionen.
– Pappren soldaterna skrivit under håller inte i domstol. Soldater kan inte på sin fritid strida i ett annat land utan tillstånd.

På ännu ett sätt är Ukrainakriget annorlunda, berättar hon. Ryska familjer reagerar inte lika kraftigt. Färre ringer. Vanligen anonymt om en son som ska skickas till Ukraina
– Jag svarar: han kan vägra. Jag säger att familjerna ska åka och hämta hem sina barn. Ingen har gjort det. Jag begriper det inte. Har vi fått en generation av likgitiga ryssar? Lättlurade? Och i så fall varför? Det måste vi ta reda på.

In October, the Russian military delivered a headless corpse to relatives of Pavel Zhilin. Officials said Zhilin, a paratrooper from the 331st airborne regiment of the 98th division, had been killed during a training exercise in Russia.

The family was sceptical about the military's account. They first became suspicious last summer, when they saw on television paratroopers from Zhilin's company who had been captured by Ukrainians. Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the soldiers lost their way and entered Ukraine by accident.

But when the family opened the coffin and saw burned and mutilated remains, they were incredulous, said the soldier's godmother. Zhilin's unit was based in Kostroma 300 km (190 miles) north-east of Moscow. She said the family didn't believe either the military's story, or that the corpse was the body of Zhilin.

"I was there," said godmother Elena Denisova. "It wasn't him. I'm 100 percent sure. It's not his body. Not his."

The corpse's feet were three shoe sizes too small, she said. Zhilin's parents declined to comment.

The military insisted that the headless body was the 22-year-old paratrooper, that he had died in Rostov province and that he had not been in Ukraine, family members said. They said the military death certificate says he was killed by an exploding shell in Rostov.

"That's not true," Denisova said.

Families of Russians killed in Ukraine are usually awarded compensation of up to 5 million roubles ($90,000), according to human rights workers. Most families desperately need the money. According to Denisova, Zhilin's family were asked by the military to fill in forms to claim compensation, but refused to do so.

"We tried to explain that if it wasn't our boy, who would you send us the money for?" said Denisova. "We aren't rich people. But we don't want to trade our child."

In November, the military buried the headless body in part of a graveyard in Kostroma reserved for war heroes. Denisova said the body was buried without the permission of relatives, who still reject the military's account.

The graveyard attendant, Lyudmila Kurochkina, said of the young soldiers laid to rest there: "Those boys were brought from Ukraine. Zhilin doesn't have a name (on his grave) because the military buried him, not his parents. His parents don't want to believe their child is there."

Alexei Besfamilny, the officer in charge of the burial, declined to say how the young man had died. "The subject is closed," he said. "It's classified."

“We have sought more and more cooperation in recent years,” Merkel said of Russia and Germany, according to the WSJ. “The criminal and illegal annexation of Crimea and the warfare in eastern Ukraine has led to a serious setback for this cooperation.”