In a small town in Kyrgyzstan, a woman moans as Russian soldiers in blue uniforms lift a coffin. His son was killed in Ukraine fighting for Russia.
“Cursed Ukraine,” she laments, gently stroking the green fabric embroidered with Islamic inscriptions that covers the coffin.
“You always wanted to join the Russian army and look what happened. Where are you going, far from me? Take me with you!” she shouts, as the procession moves away from her house with her son’s body.
The funeral of Rustam Zarifulin in Kara-Balta, an hour’s drive from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, was the second of its kind this week in Kyrgyzstan, a poor Central Asian country (7 million inhabitants) aligned with Moscow .
Echoes of Russia’s war in Ukraine reverberate in the most remote regions of the former Soviet Union.
Moscow, which locks information on the conflict, gave Friday the second official assessment of its military losses (1,351 dead) since the start of the invasion on February 24.
Western estimates are much higher. A NATO official mentioned 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers killed in just over a month.
Rustam Zarifulin, who was 26, was born in Kyrgyzstan but joined the Russian army after leaving school. He died in Ukraine on March 14.
– “Defend Russia” –
Kara-Balta authorities joined Russian embassy officials at the career soldier’s funeral where an imam led prayers around the coffin, while cows strolled carefree through the town’s alleyways.
A Russian embassy attaché said the deceased was awarded a medal for his bravery.
As barking and sobbing punctuated the silence, local officials asked residents attending the ceremony not to speak to the press.
Two days earlier, another man born in Kyrgyzstan and killed in Ukraine fighting for Russia, Egemberdi Dorboyev, had been buried in his native region of Yssyk-Köl (east).
According to Kyrgyz media, the 19-year-old was called up in the fall.
Testimonies are multiplying on cases of conscripts fighting and being killed in Ukraine – a thorny problem for the Russian government: Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, affirmed in March that his boss had asked the state- major to “categorically exclude” the conscripts from the conflict and that he will “punish” those responsible for sending them there.
Residents of Kara-Balta who spoke to AFP told of Rustam Zarifulin’s lifelong dream of fighting for the Russian army.
“He said he wanted to defend Russia,” said Nadezhda Ladozhinskaya, a 61-year-old woman who said she heads an organization representing her fellow Russians.
– “A true warrior” –
“Kara-Balta has lost one of its best men”. Timofei Karpenko, 52, says his family used to joke that his daughter was going to marry Rustam Zarifulin, whom he had known from a young age.
“When you were around him, he made you want to stand up straight. A real man. A real warrior,” Mr Karpenko said in tears.
“I don’t know who is guilty,” Karpenko added of the war in Ukraine, which the United Nations says has already driven 3.8 million people out of the country.
“Some say Putin triggered it, others say…”, he says without finishing his sentence. “But God sees everything and he will render his judgment”.
Rather than Mr. Karpenko’s daughter, the role of bereaved bride fell to a dark-haired young girl who stood by the distraught mother’s side throughout the ceremony.
“You were expecting a wedding,” the old woman told the young one. “But you find yourself at the edge of his grave.”