“My son did not go there of his own free will”: the mother of the Russian soldier who is looking for his imprisoned son in Ukraine

Thursday 24 February, the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, a photo of 2 men dressed in uniforms of the Russian army and described as prisoners of war, was posted on the Facebook page of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzny.

It was then, says Natalya Deineka, that she found out that his son, Rafik Rakhmankulov, was participating in the war.

In an interview with BBC Russia, the wife of 36 years account that her sister was the one who first told her about the photo.

Natalia has not yet received any confirmation of Rafik’s whereabouts.

“I contacted an officer from his military unit and told him what happened,” says Natalya.

“He said that the counterintelligence would verify if Rafik was in captivity or not, but there has been no confirmation”, he adds.

But the military authority did not deny that the young man from 19 years old, who enlisted in the army less than a year ago, had been sent to the Ukrainian front.

“He did not know they would take them there”

Natalia affirms that her son, who is a combat engineer in the 4th Tank Division of the Guardia (Kantemirovskaya), did not know that he would be sent to fight in the invasion of Ukraine.

Natalia Deineka says she found out on social media that her son had been sent to the invasion of Ukraine.

“He didn’t know they would take them there. They found out when they arrived”, he says.

The last time Natalia spoke with Rafik was on 23 in February, when he told him that his division was near the border with Ukraine.

“I asked him why he hadn’t said they were going to be transferred and he replied: ‘So you don’t worry.’ He also told me that everything was calm”.

When the images of the prisoners began to circulate, the Russian television channel Russia-23 described them as “fake news”.

Stable income

Natalia says she knows has contacted several organizations, including the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, a Russian NGO.

“They took the data, but so far there is no information,” he says.

“I do not know what to do. The media is silent about the fact that our children were captured. Or they don’t know”, he says.

Natalia says that Rafik joined the army in June 2021 as a conscript, which according to the legislation would have prevented him from participating in combat operations.

But Rafik’s girlfriend, Liliya, told BBC Russia that the young man became a contract soldier last December to “provide for his future family”, despite her efforts to convince him otherwise.

Una foto de Rafik Rakhmankulov cuando era niño

Rafik saw the army as a promise of financial security, says his mother.

Rafik’s mother explains that her son had been studying at an agricultural technical school but dropped out to join the army.

The young man saw in the army a promise of security f financial.

“The military are given housing, there you can have a normal salary. There is no work in the country now”, assures Natalia.

“My son was not particularly interested in a military career. It was more like an opportunity to settle down, to have some kind of stable income.”

Rafik is one of Natalia’s three children, her current partner also has three.