Vladimir Putin looks ‘pained’ as he has tea with mothers of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine war
Vladimir Putin has met with the mothers of Russian servicemen for a cosy cup of tea and a lengthy, televised exchange of views.
Contrary to his long-table treatment of Russian officials, the Russian president sat up close and personal among the women at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence just outside Moscow, telling them he shared the pain of those who have lost sons and would do everything he could to provide families with help and support.
He also advised them not to trust everything they see on the internet. The women were frank and emotional. He looked pained and sincere.
Ukraine war latest: Amount Moscow has spent on invasion revealed
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Putin reveals he calls soldiers in Ukraine
He needs to do this. Since mobilisation, social media has been awash with videos from mobilised men or “mobiks” complaining of a lack of basic equipment, weaponry or training, the general gist being that they are being sent to the front like cannon fodder.
At the same time, mothers and wives across the country have filmed themselves petitioning the president to deal with the multitude of problems and to make sure their men are better provided for.
The Kremlin knows that the best way to head off this viral spread of complaints is to embrace it, glorify the role of the mother and say the president is listening.
At an event in Moscow on Tuesday entitled “Heart of Soldier’s Mother”, a succession of speakers told an audience of mostly young cadets and officers in training how sacred the mother is to the motherland.
Women whose husbands and sons are serving on the frontlines were handed awards and carnations. A man read out a long poem about how other countries would regret rousing the Russian bear.
Singers and ballroom dancers from the army’s cultural wing provided a rousing finale, quite the contrast from one of the opening remarks: “The army is not a holiday camp.”
I ask Tatyana Umarova, whose husband and son are both at the front, what she thinks the motherland is doing in Ukraine.
“If you live in a house and your neighbour’s flat is a mess – it has cockroaches, drunk guests come over and you have kids – you can’t live calmly,” she says.
“You can imagine that one day you come home from work later and your kids will be there with the drunk neighbours, that at some point the cockroaches will spread to your apartment. You live expecting threats.”
But she sympathises with Ukrainian mothers: “A son for a mother is the same son, no matter if they are Russian or Ukrainian. I think that, whether I’m right or not, we are all part of a big nation. The only thing I want is to wish their sons return home alive and well.”
The Kremlin won’t promise that and it remains to be seen whether today’s event serves to improve conditions for Russian servicemen at the front or whether it is an empty PR gesture.
One group of women disappointed not to have been invited call themselves the “All-Russian Council of Mothers”.
They arrived in Moscow last weekend from various parts of the country in a bid to arrange meetings with officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Russian parliament and the Kremlin with marginal success.
Instead, they have been followed constantly by unknown people who slunk off, hoods up, when the women challenged them.
“The authorities don’t want to listen to us and they are showing this any way they can,” says Olga Tsukanova, who has become the face of the group on social media this past week.
Their demands range from improving conditions for the mobilised to getting rid of nuclear weapons and persuading the president to sue for peace.
The group also hold some deeply questionable, conspiratorial world views on a supposed cabal of powerful people outside the Kremlin who they believe orchestrated the conflict. It is perhaps no surprise that the authorities are treating them with caution.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
By contrast, the Committee of Soldier’s Mothers has few illusions about what Russia’s mothers can and can’t achieve. The organisation has been going since the war in Afghanistan, led since the beginning by Valentina Melnikova.
She has negotiated on mothers’ behalf with the authorities for decades, trying to get news of the missing, bodies returned, assistance to those who need it.
I ask her about the hope voiced by many in the West that Russian mothers might convince the Kremlin to change course.
“We couldn’t do anything in 1999 when Mr Putin was appointed prime minister and he started the second Chechen war,’ she replies.
“Anyone who has any illusions about the possibility of influencing the Russian leadership now, from inside the country, they are all deeply mistaken.”
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈
Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway