Ukraine war: Wives of men mobilised to Russian frontline call for end to ‘legal slavery’
In a rented apartment in a Moscow suburb, Paulina is playing with her baby daughter Aurora.
Just 20 years old, motherhood suits her and Aurora is a happy, giggling child.
But like so many in Russia and in Ukraine, her father is on the frontlines – and Paulina wants him home.
She says: “I talked to my husband and he said: ‘Don’t ask for benefits or money. Ask for us to come home.’
“If my husband told me to ask then I will. I don’t think I’m violating any laws.”
Her husband was mobilised in October last year, one of 300,000 in a partial mobilisation which sent shockwaves through Russian society.
President Vladimir Putin‘s approval ratings dipped, hundreds of thousands fled the country and people took to the streets – though those protests were quickly suppressed.
But more than a year on, small groups of women like Paulina are campaigning to try to get their husbands home, with video appeals on social media and a few attempts at public protest quickly broken up by the authorities.
Paulina, 20, with her daughter, Aurora
Paulina’s husband was among 300,000 men sent to war in a partial mobilisation
‘We are against legal slavery’
“We are against legal slavery. Both mobilised and contract soldiers must have the right to be released from military service upon expiration of the contract or from one year after the end of conscription.
“We are against the country’s leadership ignoring our problem and remaining silent.”
That’s the message in a video on one Telegram channel called “Way Home”.
A group of women stand in the snow holding up sheets of paper calling for de-mobilisation. The channel has been labelled “fake news” by Telegram.
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Zelenskyy signals ‘new phase of war’
State propagandists claim it is run by Alexei Navalny‘s team from abroad on behalf of Ukrainian and Western interests.
A rival, slicker video has found its way onto social media.
A series of women filmed in picturesque locations all across the country speak in succession, explaining to their fellow compatriots that those wives who complain are being “weaponised” by NATO and the West.
“The horrible stories that allegedly come from the front are written by people sitting in offices far away from the frontlines and getting money for it,” they say.
“They are the runaway criminals from Alexei Navalny’s friends, who are already proficient at destroying our country. They are creating another structure from the wives of the mobilised.”
It is a kind of info-war between the mothers and wives.
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Anguish of Kyiv residents
‘Monstrous machine’ may ‘crush women like everyone else’
This time last year similar groups of women were speaking out on social media. Their messages were mainly directed at getting adequate kit and sustenance to the freshly mobilised. They attracted significant media interest.
The most active among them, Olga Tsukanova, was promptly labelled a foreign agent and their voices were quickly suppressed.
The ability of these latest groups to continue to speak out will almost certainly be curtailed, too.
Most of them were never engaged in politics before. It is their first encounter with a system which has methodically eradicated anti-war sentiment or dissent of any kind, though that may come as news to them.
But now they are asking themselves the same questions about human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly as political activists used to.
Political activist Yulia Galyamina
And they are not opposition – but simply women who have given their menfolk to the war for a year now and feel they have done their bit.
“They feel they have a right to influence this system,” says political activist Yulia Galyamina, who has been labelled a foreign agent by the state.
“The fact that they internally feel this right is very important.
“But of course, they may be crushed in the same way as everyone else because the very serious repressive machine in Russia is monstrous.”
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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UK aims to build relationship with Syria
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
World
IDF blames ‘technical error’ after Gaza officials say children collecting water killed in strike
The Israeli military says it missed its intended target after Gaza officials said 10 Palestinians – including six children – were killed in a strike at a water collection point.
Another 17 people were wounded in the strike on a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al Awda Hospital.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant but a “technical error with the munition” had caused the missile to fall “dozens of metres from the target”.
The IDF said the incident is under review, adding that it “works to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians as much as possible” and “regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians”.
A wounded child is treated after the strike on the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
Officials at Al Awda Hospital said it received 10 bodies after the Israeli strike on the water collection point and six children were among the dead.
Ramadan Nassar, who lives in the area, said around 20 children and 14 adults were lined up Sunday morning to fill up water.
When the strike occurred, everyone ran and some, including those who were severely injured, fell to the ground, he said.
Blood stains are seen on containers at the water collection point. Pic: Reuters
In total, 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health officials said.
Two women and three children were among nine killed after an Israeli strike on a home in the central town of Zawaida, officials at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said.
Israel has claimed it hit more than 150 targets in the besieged enclave in the past day.
The latest strikes come after the Israel military opened fire near an aid centre in Rafah on Saturday. The Red Cross said 31 people were killed.
The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.
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Palestinians shot while seeking aid, says paramedic
The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage.
More than 58,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
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US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.
But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough, as a new sticking point emerged over the deployment of Israeli troops during the truce.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
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