Russia’s biggest military loss so far in the war in Ukraine is also becoming something of a responsibility for the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.
After Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea, Moscow, sank last week, authorities said the entire crew of more than 500 people had been rescued. But there has been no official update since then, and the families of missing crew members are increasingly demanding answers about their fate.
“They don’t want to talk to us,” said Maxim Savin, 32, in an interview with his 20-year-old brother, Leonid. “We are grieving; they chose our little brother and will probably never bring him back. “
At least 10 families have publicly expressed their disappointment at receiving conflicting reports on whether their sons are alive, missing or dead. Their demands on social media or news outlets could hurt public support for the military effort ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The official silence on the fate of the Moscow crew is part of a larger Kremlin campaign to suppress the bad news of the invasion and control the story the Russians are receiving about its progress. Mr Putin has blocked access to Facebook and many foreign news outlets and passed a law shutting down anyone who spreads “false information” about the war.
The cause of the sinking was disputed, with Russia claiming a cartridge case exploded and then the damaged ship sank while being towed into stormy seas. Ukraine has said it hit the ship with two Neptune missiles, a statement confirmed by US officials. In any case, the loss of one of the largest warships since World War II is a disgrace to Russia.
Independent Russian news outlets based outside the country reported that about 40 men were killed and another 100 injured when the warship was damaged and sunk. These reports cite an unidentified employee and the mother of a dead sailor. In addition, the wife of an elderly midshipman confirmed his death to Radio Liberty, a US government network based outside of Russia.
A satellite image published by Maxar Technologies shows that the warship Moscow docked at a port in Sevastopol, Crimea, earlier this month.
Many of the missing crew members were recruits, a sensitive topic in post-Chechen Russia, when young, poorly trained soldiers were often thrown into battle and killed in crowds, worsening public support for the war. “Several hundred” soldiers have not yet been counted since the first Chechen war in the mid-1990s, said Alexander Cherkasov, former chairman of the Moscow-based Memorial Center for Human Rights, a group disbanded this month due to a court order.
“No one is interested in the soldiers,” he said, and restrictions on NGOs mean it is virtually impossible to carry out search work, he said.
Mr Putin has repeatedly said that recruits who have to serve one year in the army will not be stationed in Ukraine, a statement refuted by the victims on the battlefield.
The Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, which dates back to the Chechen wars, has confirmed that it is receiving requests to search for missing soldiers. The organization declined to comment further, citing a law banning the sharing of information about soldiers with foreign organizations.
Parents of members of the Moscow crew, named after the Russian capital, have expressed outrage at what they described as official circumvention.
“We, the parents, are only interested in the fate of our children: why did they – as conscripts – find themselves in this military operation? said Dmitry Shkrebets, whose son Egor, 19, worked as a chef at Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, leaves Moscow at the Black Sea port of Sochi in 2014. Credit … Alexei Druzhinin / Sputnik, via Reuters
In an interview, Mr Skrebets declined to speak further, but on Sunday he posted far harsher statements on VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook.
Initially, his staff said Egor was among the missing, he said.
“Guys, have you disappeared on the high seas? !!!” he wrote. “I asked directly why you officers are alive, and my son, a soldier, died.”
Since then, Mr. Skrebets has begun collecting testimonies from other families who cannot find their sons. “The more we write, the harder it will be for them to remain silent about what is happening,” he wrote on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry S. Peskov, said on Tuesday that he was not authorized to release any information about missing sailors, and asked questions from the defense ministry.
The ministry did not respond to requests for comment. On Saturday, she released a video that allegedly shows that Adm. Nikolai Evmenov, commander of the Russian navy, meets with men described as a Moscow crew, lined up and dressed in uniform. It is not clear how many survivors of the attack are there, and nothing is mentioned about the victims in the video or in the accompanying social media posts.
An indication of the official position came Sunday night, during News Sunday, the weekly summary of state television news. The three-hour broadcast devoted about 30 seconds to the sinking, without mentioning casualties.
However, not all Kremlin officials were so restrained. A talk show host, Vladimir Solovyov, asked for an explanation Saturday as to how the ship was lost.
Leonid Savin, third from the right, in a family photo provided by his brother. Credit …
Maxim Savin said the family could not be contacted by phone with officers from his brother’s unit. His mother sent an SMS to a number and received a reply that her son Leonid was missing.
Later, the family received a series of calls from a man who seems to have served with Leonid and who is constantly changing his story. First, the man said Leonid died while trying to save a friend, Maxim Savin said. On the second call, he said there was no rescue, but Leonid was caught at the scene. The third time he called to say that he was wrong and that Leonid was gone.
“It seems that the employees are trying to make everyone shut their mouths,” said Maxim Savin.
For the first time, numerous reports of missing recruits appeared on social networks. One woman writes that her brother was working in the engine room and has been declared missing, but she is sure that he is dead.
Anna Siromaisova, the mother of a missing recruit, told the independent Russian news agency Medusa that she had not been able to see any official documents related to the victims. “There are no lists,” she said. “We are looking for them ourselves. They don’t tell us anything. “Asked by phone, she declined to speak to a foreign news organization.
Tamara Grudinina told the BBC’s Russian language service that her son Sergei Grudinin, 21, had been assigned to the ship immediately after basic training.
A screenshot from a video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows Nikolai Evmenov, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s navy, on the left, allegedly meeting with members of the Moscow crew in Sevastopol, Crimea. Credit … Ministry of Defense of Russia, through Shutterstock
When she heard that the ship had sunk, Grudinina said, she called the Ministry of Defense hotline for relatives and was told that her son was “alive and well and will be contacted as soon as possible.”
Shortly afterwards, a man who identified himself as commander of Moscow contacted her and told her that her son “generally sank with the ship”, according to the BBC.
After the war broke out on February 24, the family contacted naval officers to find out about the ship and were told it was not involved in hostilities and had to return to port soon, Maxim Savin said.
Leonid’s calls had stopped, but after talking to police, they received a letter from him saying he expected to return soon, his brother said.
He said his younger brother, who was trained as a car mechanic in a vocational school, was reluctant to join the army and did not support the war. A family photo shows a skinny young man in a sailor uniform with a rifle slung over his chest, surrounded by his parents and three brothers.
According to his brother Leonid Savin, it was much more convenient to walk in the Crimean hills with the family dog, read a book or take care of his plants. He had planted a palm tree and an avocado before taking up his military service.
“In his letter at home, he asked how his plants were,” said Maxim Savin. He was worried about them.
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