Gevgeny, a 26-year-old Russian sniper, was killed in the early days of the war in Ukraine just outside Kyiv. He had never been involved in hostilities before. Before the war he served in the National Guard, which dispersed demonstrations in Moscow. He later worked as a kennel worker in the Russian army.
Until last January, Natalia’s mother (not her real name) had never dealt with Ukraine. Despite the loss of her son, however, she believes that Russia rightly invaded the neighboring country.
DW publishes the interview as a testimony of the experience of a mother who lost her son in the Russian war in Ukraine.
When did he become a hoplite?
“Immediately after the high school exams in 2014 he went to the army, initially to a special unit of the military counterintelligence GRU. He had already been offered a contract. But I managed to stop him because I knew he would be taken to war zones. He then tried to find a job with the police and worked for a security company. However, he did not like the job and decided to claim a contract. They took him immediately. Dissolved rallies in central Moscow. Then he said that he got tired and went to the kennel center of the National Guard. In 2017 she had a son. He met his wife while working for a security company. “
When did the story with Ukraine begin?
“It was the end of January. He called me and said that they would be taken to Smolensk for military exercises with Belarus. I warned him that he might not return alive. He was laughing. I do not think he knew where he was being sent. He may have been brainwashed or he could not have imagined being sent to a massacre. Probably no one imagined, not even Putin himself, what would happen. Something went wrong.
When they brought him back to me, I wondered if he should have gone to Moscow, to convince him not to leave for the mission. He loved me and I would prevent him with the right arguments. But when he set a goal, he did not back down. “They would never refuse to carry out an order.”
Did you communicate later?
“The last time was on the morning of February 24, when it all started. In a message on WhatsApp he wrote “mom the war has started”. I replied that “I see it on TV”. He must have been somewhere at the border by then because only then could he fly to Hostomel Airport. They sacrificed them. I do not know why the business was so badly designed. They believed that they had occupied the airport and then came under fire. “From then until March 8, we had no communication.”
How did these two weeks go until the fatal news?
“I did not leave the mobile phone in my hand. Every day I lit a candle in the church and prayed. But he had been killed. I could not imagine what happened. He has been in Hostomel since February 24. He was not killed on the 27th of the month, as stated in the death certificate, but most likely on the night of the 24th of February. I was notified on March 8. At 1:30 pm I got a call from his unit to tell me that my son had been killed in a battle near Rostov. “I thought I would lose my mind.”
Do you understand why this war started?
“I think if we had not bombed, the Ukrainians would have bombed us. We probably should have bombed. We had no choice. But something went wrong and no one had predicted it. But now that so many have been killed they can not stop. They must continue until victory. “
Do you understand what Russia is doing in Ukraine? Why did Gevgeni fight?
“My son fought for Russia and the Russians. So that we can talk on the phone today, drink and eat. His death made sense. He was killed for us, so that we could live happily for many more years, so that war would not break out here, so that bombs would not fall here as well.
Russia prohibits classification of military confrontation as war. Do you think it’s a war or a “special operation”?
“No, it’s not a ‘special business.’ This is a normal war. I understand why it is not allowed to be described as such, but it is a war. A bath of blood “.
DW – Oxana Ivanova / Stefanos Georgakopoulos
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