Putin vows to support soldiers fighting in Ukraine while wives mobilise protest near Kremlin

During an address on the eve of Orthodox Christmas, on Saturday (Jan 6) Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to support soldiers "fighting to defend Moscow’s interests". Meanwhile, wives of Russians mobilised to fight in Ukraine symbolically laid flowers at the flame of an unknown soldier near the Kremlin and demanded the return of their husbands from the front.

Putin’s change in tone

“Many of our men, our courageous, heroic guys, Russian warriors, even now, on this holiday, defend the interests of our country with arms in hand,” said the Russian president at a late Saturday meeting with families of Russian soldiers who have died in Ukraine.

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He also said that he has ordered his government to ramp up support for those who fight and call on his people to be merciful and just.

It has also been reported that Putin, who is facing elections in March, has been softening his speeches to focus on traditional Russian values and unity.

“I would like our meeting to be a clear, understandable signal to all my colleagues throughout the Russian Federation, and at all levels – a clear signal to ensure that my colleagues are always and everywhere with you, I repeat, any level of power,” he told the families gathered at a chapel at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.

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In a separate greeting for the occasion issued on the Kremlin’s website, Putincalled on his citizens to follow the “unshakable” values of “goodness, mercy and justice” and on the Russian Orthodox Church to help strengthen “the institution of families” and patriotism.

Notably, this year Putin did not call for a ceasefire in Ukraine to coincide with the holiday – like he did last year – which many Orthodox Christians celebrate on January 6-7.

Orthodox Christmas services were also held in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian, unlike the rest of the war-torn country.

Kyiv celebrated its Christmas on December 25 after President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law last July to change the date of the Christmas holiday from January 7 partly to “renounce Russian heritage”.

Protest near Kremlin

Amid growing anger among relatives of reservists whom Putin mobilised in September 2022, months after Russia began invading Ukraine, some 15 women, according to AFP, braved the winter cold to place red flowers at the site in the heart of the capital which is also right beneath the walls of the Kremlin.

“We want to draw the authorities’ attention and that of the public to our appeal. We have tried several means. We made a written appeal to lawmakers, officials, administrations – but we were not heard,” Maria, a 47-year-old sales manager, whose husband was mobilised in November 2022, told the news agency.

She added, “It’s not fair. They are civilians, they are not soldiers. Our husbands can’t stay there.”

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While protests and criticism, particularly about what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine are dealt with swiftly in Moscow, mobilisation is said to be a sensitive subject for authorities, who have so far refrained from repressing what has become a nascent movement of revolt.

Maria Semyonova, a legal assistant, urged authorities to “negotiate peace” in Ukraine at a protest where police, according to AFP, did not intervene.

The protest is “the only peaceful action that has not yet been banned by law,” Paulina, the mother of a one-year-old child, told the news agency.

She added, “I feel like we’re annoying them. But no one will remain silent. We shall carry on every day, every Saturday.”

(With inputs from agencies)