The mother of a Russian sailor killed in the sinking of the Moskva ship said her son was “burned to ashes.”
Russian officials claim the Moskva warship sank after a fire ignited the ammunition supplies, but Ukrainian forces claim they sank it with two Neptune missiles.
Officials told the mother of a missing Russian conscript serving on the sunk warship Moskva that her son and other lost sailors were “burned to ashes.”
Olga Dubinina, a brave woman, has accused the authorities of lying to bereaved relatives and subjecting them to “blackmail” by agreeing to compensation only if they sign a paper confirming the vessel was not hit by Ukrainian missiles.
Vladimir Putin’s flagship went down on April 14, but Russian authorities have yet to admit it.
The actual number of victims is thought to be in the dozens, but could be in the hundreds.
The enraged mother lost her son, Nikita Syromyasov, on the warship, but she is still waiting for an official account of what happened and naval confirmation that he died.
“I don’t believe a single word of what they say,” she told.
“Regardless of rank, it’s all a complete lie.”
Anguished parents and widows are being denied necessary documentation for compensation after admitting their children died on the ill-fated Moskva, she claims.
This means that the Russian version, rather than Ukraine’s and the West’s, that there was an explosion and fire on the ship, led to the sinking, is correct.
“It’s a kind of…blackmail,” she explained.
When asked if she signed, she replied, “Of course not.”
This is what kind of statement is it? Are you dead as a result of a disaster?
“I am dissatisfied with this wording, and I do not agree [this is how] my son died.”
If they think otherwise, I tell them, ‘Prove it to me.'”
“The new version is that they all [lost conscripts] burned to ashes,” they’re saying now.
“They only talk to us, they don’t give us anything in writing,” said the desperate mother from Sevastopol.
There is a team sent to help people like me, whose sons and husband have gone missing.
