Two mothers of missing conscripts who served on the Moskva told Novaya Gazeta. Europe that they were asked to recognise that their sons “died as a result of an accident.” They refused to sign these documents. Novaya Gazeta. Europe publishes the story of a conscript’s mother who told us about the way the Russian military command treats the relatives of deceased soldiers. She also shared the accounts of injured servicemen who are still in hospitals. We do not disclose their names due to safety concerns.

“The command met with us after we made waves at the very beginning when we talked to reporters. We were invited for a talk. Those who could come to Sevastopol met with the commander [of the Black Sea Fleet Admiral Igor Osipov personally]. Not one-on-one, there were about 10 people there: representatives of the military prosecution, the city administration, psychologists of some kind. The meeting started the same for everybody, they told us: “The cruiser will be recognised as part of the special military operation. The guys are all heroes, they will be awarded medals of courage (she likely means the Orders of Courage — editor’s note).”

Before coming to the meeting, I called the Russian Defence Ministry to inquire about the status of my son. This was after they published the official information. I was told that my son was not on the list of killed, injured or missing soldiers. I asked them what it meant. They told me: “It means that he is in the ranks.” I came to the meeting, and they gave me this opening statement about heroes, combat and so on: the gist was that we should recognise our sons as killed.

Then I asked them why my son was not on any list of the Russian Defence Ministry. They told me he was in the ranks. He was so surprised. He told me that he would find out why they were saying that. I asked him if there was a possibility that there was a raft, or that there were boats or something, that they drifted to a different territory. He looked at me. He could barely hold his laughter. “No, no, this is impossible,” he told me.

The next day, I called the Defence Ministry again. They told me that he still wasn’t on any list. They mentioned all the existing lists, adding one of “captured soldiers.”

Later, the military command tried to prove to me that the conscripts did not take part in active combat.

“What about the Zmiinyi Island?” I asked. (Reportedly, the Moskva cruiser participated in the attack on the island in the early days of the war in Ukraine — editor’s note). “How could he not take part in it? Half of the crew are involved in active combat, and half are just there for the ride?”

I asked him if the entire crew was aboard the ship at that moment. He told me yes. This means that every member of the crew was affected by what could have happened. Everyone was in danger.

Several people are considered missing from Military Unit Number 5 (the engine room). The same captain of the third rank tells us, the parents, a different story every time. He tried to tell me that my child had died from smoke inhalation. He told another mother that he personally escorted people out of the engine room, but two people from the middle of the line disappeared somewhere, and they couldn’t find them. I tell him that as far as I understand, the passages there are narrow, and the next person in line would stumble if someone fell. He nods and agrees. 

The officers are crying when describing everything in detail. And yet, they don’t have a scratch nor a burn on them. They also tell us that no one was heavily injured. And then there’s someone in the back saying: “You should have seen them [the injured] at our hospital.”

By 9 May, we understood that there was no search operation. I asked a guy I know who works there, he serves there. He told me: ‘Search operation? There’s no search operation. Someone would have definitely let it slip or told us.’ So they were just stalling for time. They told us a search operation was underway, and we sat there waiting, we didn’t talk to anyone.

Hospital staff do not talk to us at all. When you tell them a name from the list, they put it in the computer, tell us to “wait, wait” and leave. Then they come back and tell us that there’s no one by that name. When I called them on the phone, they didn’t even ask my child’s name or date of birth. Someone managed to reach the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital once, when it was still possible. They told them that there were seriously injured and unidentified persons there. That’s what we thought, because when we asked around, they told us that there were people with serious injuries, some were carried on stretchers, they couldn’t walk. There are soldiers with shrapnel wounds, with head injuries. Some are in such a condition that they do not remember how they got to the hospital. Meanwhile, the command claims that there are no injuries at all.

Then we started receiving letters from conscription offices saying “We regret to inform you that your son went missing as a result of an accident.” And then they sent me a statement filled out for me, which says that I accept that my son’s body was not found due to the fact that there was an accident. They invited me to sign this statement and told me that there are witnesses who saw my son on the cruiser on that day, but they didn’t see where he disappeared to. I don’t have this statement on me, I didn’t even come to get it. I told them I wouldn’t sign anything. And then they called me and said “three families have signed the statement already, you should come and sign too, so that it gets to the court without a delay.” They didn’t even ask me if I’m willing to sign this statement, that I voluntarily recognise my son as killed… Not even killed.

The document also says that I will be provided with an attorney, after which I can ask for insurance money. A little over 7 million (rubles, about €111,800 — editor’s note). I told them I’m not going to come.

I called one of the fathers, his son told him that the commanders had taken their military IDs to declare them participants of the “special military operation” who will receive combat pay. And then we receive a statement that doesn’t mention that they participated in the operation. It doesn’t even mention that they were killed, it says they “died”. Like they just went out to get some bread and disappeared.

A third-rank captain told us: “We signed an NDA, but I’ll still tell you this in secret.” I was surprised that he would just say something to a woman he doesn’t know. He told me about the missiles and that they were held there for five days, they were interrogated, and a commission arrived. And he came out to meet me looking quite good, it doesn’t seem like he had spent five sleepless nights there, although he said that he had just been released on that day. When my son left the cruiser sometimes, he was so tired and worn out. He was waiting for his service to end, to leave it all behind for good. I suppose they gave all the hard work to the conscripts. He never complained, but I saw what was happening, judging by the way he looked. And then other parents confirmed to me that the cruiser basically depended on the conscripts.

The commander later said that there were three missiles: one missed, and two hit the target. One hit the engine room, the other hit the galley, I think. I showed a photograph of the guys, he recognised them all, all 500 people. Military Units 7, 2, 5, he remembered them all! He said they were all there, and there’s no use searching for them.

The boys with light injuries, who are now in hospitals, told us even when we weren’t alone that they signed an NDA, but there were two missiles. We decided that it was just a story, because how could they all be telling us the same thing when they signed an NDA? First, they mentioned different times: some said that [the missiles hit the ship] in the morning, some said in the evening or the afternoon. And then some kind of unified system emerged, and they all started mentioning the time frame of 14:30-15:00.

They told us that the doors jammed even during drills, and the sailors had to use the intercom to ask someone to open them. And that time, [when the missile hit], the door jammed again. And they couldn’t get out, because there was a lot of smoke and no one went down for them. They told us that my son was thrown out of the porthole. Because when smoke started to spread, they started to throw the conscripts out of the portholes. But the water was cold and the cruiser was still moving, so they could have come under the propellers, and they couldn’t stay in the water long.

The captain told me that they tried to keep the ship afloat for a long time, then they understood that this is it, and they told everyone to jump overboard. They started throwing out rafts. Then they deployed a speedboat from the cruiser. But then I heard another story about a rescue ship, which said that the boat wasn’t deployed, that something went wrong there.

Everyone still thinks that the guys are still out there. Because there are so many inconsistencies. If the command called us in and told us the same story… But what we ended up with just doesn’t make any sense.”

Missing on the open sea, not a member of the ‘special operation’

Relatives of 19-year-old conscript Mukhammed Murtazaev, who served on the Moskva cruiser, were also offered to sign documents that said that he “died as a result of an accident.” Mukhammed’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous, made it clear that she would not sign anything.

“When we addressed the command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, they provided no response to our questions, they ignored us,” the conscript’s mother said. “I suppose that the command of the Black Sea Fleet is violating its service regulations and other legal and regulatory acts when it comes to informing close relatives of the servicemen regarding their condition. They do not give us any information about those evacuated from the ship, which could definitely be gathered in the 40 days since the sinking of the cruiser. Eleven days later, on 24 April, we were invited for a talk with the commanders of the Black Sea Fleet.

We were told that my son is on the list of missing servicemen. This information wasn’t provided to us in written form. We also addressed the Military Commissariat of the Republic of Crimea, and received a response on 29 April: “We regret to inform you that your son <…> Murtazaev Mukhammed Severovich, who was in conscript service, went missing as a result of an accident on the open sea on the guided missile cruiser Moskva on 13 April, 2022.” Only ten days after the incident, they remembered to set up a team that deals with informing the relatives, and every day, I hear the same statement they learned by heart, that the divers went down there, investigated the area and didn’t find anyone.

The relatives were told during a meeting with the commander that the cruiser was located in neutral waters, and that it did not take part in active combat.

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In early May, the Russian military prosecution responded to an address by Dmitry Shkrebets, whose son, conscript Yegor Shkrebets, was declared “missing” from his military unit. The prosecution claims that the ship that Yegor served on did not enter “Ukraine’s territorial waters,” nor did it take part in the “special military operation.” Dmitry wrote on his VK page that the high-ranking officers were the first to leave the ship.

The Ukrainian government stated on 13 April that the Russian cruiser was hit with Neptune missiles. The following day, the Russian Defence Ministry confirmed that there was an explosion on the cruiser, claiming that ammunition exploded onboard the ship, the sailors were evacuated, and the cruiser “remains afloat.” Later, the ministry stated that the Moskva cruiser had sunk while being towed to Sevastopol during a storm.