'Our men die in vain': Russian soldier's widow speaks out against war in animated video | Ukraine-Russia war

The video was posted on Thursday evening on the Telegram channel of the Russian protest movement “Put” Dumoi (“The Road Home,” ed.), which consists mainly of concerned women and mothers of soldiers. It has already been viewed more than 25,000 times, the Moscow Times reported.

Ishkova claims that she recorded the video in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Berdyansk. She traveled there to celebrate New Year's Eve with her husband, who was conscripted into Russia's “partial” military mobilization last fall and has not been allowed to see his family since.

“I came to the Zaporizhzhya region alone to celebrate the New Year with my husband,” she says. “His comrades called me today to tell me he had died.”

Ishkova says the partial mobilization and her husband's death forced her to “wake up” and realize that Russians and their “minimal social participation” are “partly to blame” for what is happening today.

“I came to Berdyansk… and I want to tell you that the people here do not need this war. Our men are dying in vain,” says the sad widow.

“Let's be more aware, let's make our own choices, and let's not close our eyes to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are dying today and they don't show it to you on TV,” Ishkova said.

“What I want to say to everyone who fights for their beloved man…is that there is no more time, because every day can be fatal. Now fight for them, run away with them, and do everything possible,” she advises soldiers’ wives. I didn't do it and I lost everything. “I lost my dearest person and woke up.”

Dozens of members of Bute Domoy staged a protest in central Moscow in November to demand that the Russian government return men mobilized from the front lines.

The movement quickly became the target of attacks by preachers and security services, who accused its members of having ties to the West.