The wife of a Russian soldier made an emotional appeal for his return from Ukraine today at the president’s central polling station Vladimir Putin.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin issued a decree according to which my husband must be there (in Ukraine). I am interested to know when he will issue an order that my husband should be at home,” said Maria Andreeva and while workers at the polling station were looking at her.

The woman got into a heated verbal confrontation with another woman who told her that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are defending their country and that she should be praying for them.

“So what’s next? The Ministry of Defense spent its money, now we have to juice our people, take their last shred of life? So that they come back to us in pieces?” asked Andreyeva.

“Will they give me a piece? What will I get back? A man without legs, without arms, a sick man? Do you know what’s going on there?”

The dispute took place during a visit to Putin’s central polling station by a small delegation of “The Way Home”, of an organization of soldiers’ wives campaigning for their return from the front.

This woman’s outburst reveals the depth of anger and despair among some soldiers’ families as the war rages on with no end in sight after nearly two years of hostilities.

Andreyeva said she sees no urgent need for the authorities to address the concerns of the soldiers’ spouses and the time has come for them to step up their campaign.

She told reporters that her daughter, who is a toddler, was diagnosed with a developmental speech disorder due to her father’s absence.

“All my family’s problems can be solved by only one thing, my husband retiring. Because she’s a completely different child when her father comes home.”