The Russian President, Vladimir Putin will meet this week with the mothers of the men called to fight in Ukrainethe Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed an earlier report by the Russian newspaper Vedomosti that the Russian leader would meet the mothers of conscripted soldiers as part of his partial mobilization order of September 21.
Vedomosti, citing three unnamed Kremlin sources, said the event would be timed to coincide with Mother’s Day, which is celebrated in Russia on Sunday, November 27.
“Indeed, such a meeting is planned, we can confirm it,” Peskov told reporters when asked about it. “Such a meeting is in preparation.”
He did not confirm when or where the meeting would take place, but said it would take place this week.
“The president often holds these types of meetings, not all of them are public. In any case, the president receives first-hand information about the real state of affairs,” Peskov added.
The announcement comes amid reports that Putin is facing growing opposition to his war against Ukraine from the mothers of his country’s soldiers.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank, assessed last week that Russian citizens, including mothers, are increasingly turning to various social media platforms to express their discontent with the Putin’s partial mobilization order.
ISW noted that some 1,500 mothers of disabled children and mothers with more than three children at home have petitioned the Russian president to exempt their husbands from mobilization.
Although Russian defense officials said some 300,000 reservists and ex-servicemen with “certain military specialties and relevant experience” would be called up to fight in Ukraine, the figure in Putin’s partial mobilization decree has not been disclosed to the public.
Multiple reports have surfaced of men ineligible for draft being deployed.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on October 31 to have completed its partial mobilization. Yet men of fighting age in Russia still go into hiding for fear of being drafted.
Putin has said that some 80,000 mobilized citizens have been deployed in Ukraine so far, some 50,000 of whom are taking part in the hostilities.