Russian families from the Volga region of Samara continue to bury loved ones who died in one of the Ukraine war’s deadliest incidents as local anger simmers over the New Year’s Eve attack.
At least 89 Russian soldiers – mostly men drafted from Samara – were killed when Ukrainian missiles slammed into a makeshift barracks in the Russian-held Ukrainian town of Makiivka.
“His death opened our eyes – people are really being killed there,” Viktor Gorodnychy said of his relative Askhat Asimov, 29, who died in the attack.
The death toll in Makiivka has not only drawn criticism from influential pro-Kremlin bloggers who accuse the country’s military leadership of incompetence, but also fueled misunderstanding and anger within families.
Asimov, who is survived by a wife and two children, was buried last week in the small village of Sadovka in the Samara Region to the sound of Russia’s national anthem.
Dozens of people came to pay their last respects.
Funeral of a Russian soldier killed in Makiivka. vk.com/azarovlife
“Our tears fell and we couldn’t even hold them back,” Gorodnychy, who attended the funeral, told the Moscow Times.
Gorodnychy and Asimov, who were friends, both lived in the same village, about 100 kilometers from the capital of the region.
“I have a negative attitude towards the Russian authorities,” Gorodnychy added when asked who was responsible for his friend’s death.
Asimov, drafted during Russia’s “partial” mobilization action, was sent to Makiivka 10 days before the attack, according to his relatives.
“He didn’t even come to the fight,” Asimov’s cousin Aliya Kotova told local media on Tuesday.
“They just got bombed.”
Asimov’s funeral is among a series of military funerals held in the Samara region over the past week, as the coffins of those who died in Makiivka were transported home and handed over to relatives.
At least a dozen men killed in Makiivka have been buried in the region so far, according to local media reports and statements by officials.
Personal belongings of Russian soldiers after the Makiivka attack. Valentin Sprinchak / TASS
The village of Mirny, which has a population of just 7,000, has buried five men killed in the strike in Makiivka, according to local Telegram group Protocol.Samara.
While the Russian Defense Ministry said 89 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack on New Year’s Eve – one of the most popular holidays in Russia and Ukraine – Kyiv has claimed about 400 Russian soldiers died.
Amid rumors that the true death toll could be in the hundreds, Alexei Vdovin, the Samara region’s military commissar, said on Tuesday that authorities would not release a full list of those killed or injured.
“This is a task for foreign intelligence agencies to identify and carry out provocations against soldiers’ families,” Vdovin said in a video statement.
In addition to a refusal to release a list of victims, the aftermath of the Makiivka attack has also received little coverage in Russia’s state media.
Some relatives claimed that officials asked them to remain silent.
According to Gorodnychy, the Vkontakte social media platform deleted a post by one of his relatives about Asimov’s death.
Funeral of a Russian soldier killed in Makiivka. vk.com/azarovlife
A mobilized soldier who said he was helping clear the rubble in Makiivka told independent media outlet Verstka last week that military commanders had banned the dissemination of information about what happened.
“No one will say anything. They shut everyone up,” another woman, whose relative survived the attack, told the BBC Russian Service on Wednesday.
The lack of official information prompted local activists to file a petition asking the Department of Defense to release a full list of those killed.
So far, over 52,000 people have signed the petition.
“Losses should not be underestimated and people should know who is alive and who is dead,” local activist Sergei Podsytnik, who started the petition, told the Moscow Times.
“Of course, the soldiers who brought a weapon to the territory of Ukraine are wrong, but the relatives have the right to know what happened,” said Podsytnik.
Some relatives of those killed were also angered by the Defense Ministry’s statement that cellphones used by their soldiers allowed Kyiv to locate their positions and successfully target the troops inside a vocational school building.
“I think that’s nonsense,” Gorodnychy told the Moscow Times.
Funeral of a Russian soldier killed in Makiivka. vk.com/azarovlife
A relative of a Russian soldier killed in Makiivka said the men used Ukrainian SIM cards to call their friends and relatives on New Year’s Eve.
“They threw away all Russian SIM cards [the southern Russian city of] Rostov, on the way to Makiivka, and then their commander took them to a special place where they bought Ukrainian SIM cards,” the relative told the BBC Russian Service.
Even if Russia’s Defense Ministry figures don’t downplay casualties, 89 deaths in Makiivka would be the highest death toll in a single attack since President Vladimir Putin ordered tanks into Ukraine in late February.
“They want to send them back to the front lines with no artillery support, no cover – just like cannon fodder,” wrote Yevgenita Kulikova, the wife of a mobilized soldier, on Monday under a Vkontakte post about local funerals of Samara region governor Dmitry Azarov.
“When will it end?” wrote Natalia Kostyukhina, another Vkontakte user, under the same post.
“Stop sending our men to the meat grinder.”