“We need answers. He was only 19 years old, he was a conscript. They didn't tell me anything else, any information or when the funeral would be. I'm sure he's not the only one.” The desperate anguish emerges from the mouth of Yulia Tsyvova, the mother of Andrei, one of the sailors drowned after the sinking of Moskva, the Russian cruiser in front of the Black Sea coast of Odessa and that it was hit on 13 April by two Ukrainian missiles, presumably of the Neptune type.
Moscow was quick to give false information about what happened. One of the many fake news that it disseminates during the bloody invasion of the neighboring country. He pointed out that it had been a fire in the ammunition room, that the evacuation had been complex due to waves and storms that made it difficult to rescue and extinguish the fire. Then he denied that it had sunk.
A few days later he rectified the information: the flagship of Vladimir Putin's fleet lay on the bottom of the sea, unusable. With it dozens - or hundreds rushed to the seabed? - of sailors who failed to escape or were killed by the explosion. There is still no official figure on the number of deaths, injuries and the circumstances in which a possibly chaotic evacuation took place.
Yulia received the call from Navy authorities on Monday, according to The Guardian. Five days after the incredible news broke all over the world. During that time, the woman - desperate like every mother - called countless times how many people approached her from the Ministry of Defense to try to find out what had happened to her son, who had been summoned by “La Madre Patria” for an alleged “special military mission” that resulted in an invasion and war.
How Andrei, tens of thousands of young people between the ages of 18 and 19 were forced to enter that hell without sharing the causes of the mission. So far, Russia recognized the deaths of 21 thousand soldiers in Ukraine. However, there is still no official information about how many died in the sinking of the Moskva. At least 510 families are waiting for answers to find out what the fate of their children was after the bloody impact of Neptune.
That number - a humiliation for Russia - remains the absolute secret. So far only the deaths of Andrei and another conscript were confirmed by the authorities in that Ukrainian counterattack. The Kremlin seems not interested in the duel of its soldiers.
“This regime has never been very transparent about casualties. Much of this has precedents and is not something very new or very surprising,” Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Center in Moscow told that English newspaper. It referred to military operations in Ukraine and Syria or “investigations” into the attacks in Beslan and the Dubrovka theatre.
Dmitry Shkrebets has a lost son in action. He was a cook at Moskva. He was told that his son was “lost in action”. “How can it be? ”, he wonders. “They said the entire crew was evacuated. It's a lie! A cruel and cynical lie! ”.
“We are looking for all the burned children,” Irina - the wife of Shkrebets - told the Russian media outlet Insider, one of the few surviving independents. He saw an image of at least 200 wounded to see if he could find his son. “I can't tell you how difficult it was, but I couldn't find mine. There were only 200 people, and there were more than 500 on board the cruise ship. Where were the others? We searched Krasnodar, and everywhere, we called all the places, but we couldn't find it.”
Scary testimonials
The statement of a conscript sailor who witnessed the attack on Moskva was revealed by Novaya Gazeta, Russia's leading investigative media outlet, which now operates from outside the country after being gagged by Putin.
The anonymous survivor told his mother in tears that at least 40 crew members died in the attack, with “many missing” and mutilated with lost limbs. “The first time I heard from him was on April 15, two days after the incident,” the mother said.
“My son said that the cruise ship was hit from land, from the Ukrainian side, because the fire on board would not have started without a reason,” he added. “There are people killed, injured and missing,” he said. “My son called me as soon as they gave everyone phones [after they were rescued]. Their own documents and phones were on the [sunken] cruise ship.”
“He called me and cried because of what he had seen. It was horrible. Clearly, not everyone survived.”
The woman said: “Most of the injured have limbs torn off, due to explosions from missiles and detonated ammunition. He said: 'Mamochka, I never thought I would get into such a mess during supposedly peaceful times. I won't even tell you the details of what I saw, it was so horrendous.”
“I don't want to share his name because I'm afraid of harming my son,” the woman added, desperate. “They signed confidentiality agreements before boarding the cruise. Please understand me, I'm terrified. I am petrified and I don't know how I will wait for my son to return.”
KEEP READING:
Últimas Noticias
Debanhi Escobar: they secured the motel where she was found lifeless in a cistern
Members of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office in Nuevo León secured the Nueva Castilla Motel as part of the investigations into the case
The oldest person in the world died at the age of 119
Kane Tanaka lived in Japan. She was born six months earlier than George Orwell, the same year that the Wright brothers first flew, and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize
Macabre find in CDMX: they left a body bagged and tied in a taxi
The body was left in the back seats of the car. It was covered with black bags and tied with industrial tape
The eagles of America will face Manchester City in a duel of legends. Here are the details
The top Mexican football champion will play a match with Pep Guardiola's squad in the Lone Star Cup
Why is it good to bring dogs out to know the world when they are puppies
A so-called protection against the spread of diseases threatens the integral development of dogs
