Days after the cruiser Moscow sank in the Black Sea, Yulia Tsivova was desperately searching for information about her son Andrei.
Like hundreds of other Russian families of crew members, she was not told if he survived the reported Ukrainian missile attack that sank Russia’s flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
Then on Monday morning she received a call from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Her son was dead.
“He was only 19, he was a recruit,” said Tsivova, who cried as she spoke on the phone. “They didn’t tell me anything else, no information when the funeral will be.
“I’m sure he’s not the only one who died.”
Members of the families of sailors who served on board the “Moscow” are demanding answers, as the ministry is trying to suppress information about what happened to the ship or its crew of 510 people.
The total number of dead, wounded and missing remains a state secret. Tsivov’s death, which has not been announced before, is only the second confirmed by the warship. Three other families said they could not find their sons who had served on board.
Media reports suggest the death toll will be far higher, and efforts to suppress information about the dead have compared the Kursk submarine incident, which killed 118 sailors and damaged the prestige of young President Vladimir Putin in 2000.
“This regime has never been very transparent about the victims,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, citing Russia’s military operations in Ukraine and Syria or investigations into the Beslan attacks and the Dubrovka Theater. “Many of these have an advantage and it’s not something very new or very surprising.”
New information on the deaths of young sailors will also renew control over the Russian government’s use of troops in battle, something Putin explicitly denied was the case at the start of the war.
The Ministry of Defense was forced to admit that it had deployed troops after some were captured in Ukraine during the first weeks of the war. It is said that he will not use them anymore.
But several parents of Moscow crew members told the Guardian and others that their sons on board were indeed servicemen, not professional contract soldiers.
“A recruiter who should not see active battles is among those missing in action,” wrote Dmitry Shkrebets, whose son Egor was the ship’s cook and is listed as missing in action. “Guys, how can you be out of action in the middle of the high seas? !!!”
Photos and videos allegedly showing “Moscow” shortly before it sank appeared on Monday, nearly four days after it sank. Images show that the lifeboats were deployed, indicating that an order was probably given to leave the ship.
Families of several crew members said they had managed to find living members of their family.
Eskender Dzheparov said he recognized his brother Akbar in a video released by the defense ministry showing sailors from Moscow meeting with a senior admiral in Sevastopol after the ship sank.
“We were very happy when we saw him in the video of the crew in Sevastopol,” Dzheparov said. “The day after the tragedy, he called our mother and said he was alive and well. That she didn’t have to worry about him. He didn’t tell us what happened, he didn’t say much. He calls us from different numbers. He is a recruiter, started last July. He definitely never signed a contract. “
A still image taken from a video released by Russia is said to show members of Moscow’s crew in Sevastopol on Saturday. Photo: press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense / EPA
A member of the crew member’s family, Eugene Greenberg, said in an online messenger that “his condition is good and I do not intend to reveal military secrets.”
“This is fraught with consequences,” wrote Valery Greenburg of Monchegorsk, near Murmansk. “And Evgeni didn’t say anything anyway.”
Asked if he was on board the ship, he wrote “yes” and then deleted the message. Asked how he knew about his relative’s condition, he wrote: “I called the Ministry of Defense.”
But many others were less fortunate. Scraper was one of the first to go public asking for answers as to why his son had been sent to war. “They said the entire crew had been evacuated. It’s a lie! A cruel and cynical lie! ”
His wife, Irina, told the independent Russian website The Insider that they saw about 200 wounded sailors at a military hospital in Crimea while searching for their son. The total crew of “Moscow” is estimated at just over 500 people.
“We looked at every burnt child,” she told Insider. “I can’t tell you how difficult it was, but I couldn’t find mine. There were only 200 people, and there were more than 500 on board the cruiser. Where were the others? We searched in Krasnodar and everywhere else, we called everywhere, but we couldn’t find it. “
Other families turned to the Skrebets family in hopes of finding more information.
“We have been contacted by three families from Yalta, Alupka and St. Petersburg, whose children have also disappeared, also in the military,” her husband wrote on Monday, adding that they had written a request for more information to the local staff.
“We need written answers to our questions about finding our children, not text messages with photos and prayers,” he said.
Other parents were obviously more afraid to talk. Ulyana Tarasova from St. Petersburg wrote online: “My son, Tarasov Mark, has disappeared in action aboard the cruiser Moscow.
Hours later, her post had disappeared.
Others who spoke to Russian media asked for anonymity for fear of facing government repression.
Another sailor’s mother told Novaya Gazeta Evropa that three missiles had hit Moscow. She said about 40 people had died, several had disappeared and “many had been injured”.
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