In her determined seek for solutions over her son Valentin’s loss of life, Elena even turned to Vladimir Putin.
She wrote to the Russian president demanding an evidence as to why an 18-year-old conscript was concerned in fight.
All through the battle in Ukraine, the Kremlin promised that conscripts would not be despatched to battle. However in Valentin’s case, the battle got here to him.
He had been deployed to the Kursk area as a part of his navy service and stationed on the border.
Nevertheless it was there that Ukrainian forces launched their cross-border incursion in August and one month after it started, Valentin was killed after receiving a shrapnel wound to the pinnacle.
“It needs to be specifically educated folks there, not youngsters,” Elena says.
“They had been taken from residence, from a mom’s nest, and delivered to some unknown place, the place there may be capturing.
“What sort of warrior is he? He is not a warrior.”
Valentin’s grave
Like different fallen troopers, Russia views Valentin as a hero, however that is no consolation to Elena. All she has are questions, which she wasn’t afraid to place to Mr Putin straight.
“A very powerful query was: ‘What had been our kids doing there?’ However I did not get any response,” she says.
“At that second I simply wished to take the entire world and switch it the wrong way up.
“Whoever says they’re obligated for navy service, what do they owe? What did my son take from the Motherland to pay a debt together with his life?”
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Valentin was just a few weeks in need of his nineteenth birthday when he died, and almost a 12 months into his navy service. Elena did not need him to signal on so quickly – head boy in school, he may have deferred conscription till after additional research – however she says he was excited to serve and insisted.
Footage of him in his parade uniform are in every single place in her house in Rybinsk, a city 160 miles northeast of Moscow. His blue beret is perched on a shelf. And Elena nonetheless hopes that sooner or later he’ll stroll by way of the door.
Valentin, who had been head boy in school, was eager to serve
The graveyard Valentin is buried in
“I nonetheless watch for him to come back again residence, despite the fact that I noticed his physique. I nonetheless cannot consider it,” she says, tears operating down her face.
“Generally I sit and assume who my grandchildren may have been. It is not possible to reside like this. It isn’t life.”
Russia would not publish its casualty figures however the UK estimates that greater than 750,000 Russian troops have both been killed or wounded within the three years for the reason that Kremlin’s full-scale invasion started.
Valentin is buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Rybinsk – a 20-minute bus trip for Elena. There are dozens and dozens of navy graves there, every one marked with flags. The grave subsequent to Valentin is for a serviceman killed on the identical day as him.
It is uncommon for anybody to talk overtly in Russia in regards to the battle as a result of criticising it will probably land you in jail. However Elena is decided to forestall different moms from struggling the identical expertise.
“I need just one factor – for all youngsters to come back residence,” she mentioned.
“I need them to listen to us and provides us again our kids in the identical state we gave them, not chilly.”
