As the bodies pile up from Russia’s war against Ukraine, Kremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov is urging Russians to welcome death.
“Life is highly overrated,” the propagandist said in his program on state-run TV on Monday. “Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we’ll go to heaven. Death is the end of one earthly path and the beginning of another.”
He went on to question why people would let their fear of death “influence their decisions.”
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“It’s only worth living for something you can die for, that’s the way it should be,” Solovyov told viewers from his warm TV studio.
His comments came after Russian forces suffered one of their most devastating setbacks on the battlefield, with hundreds of newly drafted troops killed in a Ukrainian strike on a facility housing the fresh cannon fodder on New Year’s Day.
While Ukrainian authorities estimated the deaths numbered about 400, Russia’s Defense Ministry has only confirmed 63 fatalities. The mass casualties set off an uproar in Russia, with lawmakers hilariously threatening to make Ukraine “answer for” killing Russian troops who had invaded their country to kill Ukrainian civilians.
The deaths also triggered a round of furious finger-pointing by pro-Kremlin military bloggers, many of whom accused top military brass of “negligence” for what they called the “tragedy in Makiivka.” Russian-backed authorities in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, where the strike occurred, meanwhile blamed the Russian troops for giving away their locations by using their cellphones.
Nearly a year into the war, the Kremlin seems hell-bent on keeping it going at all costs—even if that means hundreds of thousands more will have to be summoned to face likely death on the battlefield in Ukraine.
An obscure group calling itself the “Soldiers’ Widows” seemed to appear out of nowhere this week to call on the Russian president to do just that.
In an open letter published on Telegram on Monday, the mysterious group urged Vladimir Putin to declare a general mobilization and block all military-age men from leaving the country.
“Now is not the time to get cold feet,” the group wrote, urging Putin to be more like Josef Stalin, who “didn’t think about any ratings or dissatisfaction of dissidents” in his quest for “victory.”
