The first female Russian
soldier killed in Ukraine was buried today as Vladimir Putin faced
yet another day of appalling war losses among his high-ranking officers.
Corporal Anastasia Savitskaya,
35, a married mother-of-two said to be a ‘real hero’, was buried today in her
native Volgograd, a city in southwest Russia.
‘The deceased became the first
servicewoman who died during the special military operation,’ said Alexander
Strukov, the local veterans’ leader.
Savitskaya becomes one of the
latest Russian colonels to be killed in Ukraine amid the Russian president’s
brutal on-going invasion of the country, which has seen Ukraine’s forces put up a fierce defence of their country.
While the full scale of
Russia’s military losses is unknown, it is estimated that Putin’s forces have
suffered more than 30,000 deaths. At least 70 colonels have been killed after
at least 12 were killed in just two days.
A friend of Savitskaya said:
‘She had dreamed of serving in the army since childhood, and signed a contract
at the age of 18.’ Going to war in Ukraine ‘was her choice,’ they said.
Her bereft husband – a former
soldier, not named – said at her funeral: ‘How will I carry on living now? Why
did I let you go there? Beloved, beautiful, best.’
Unlike some Western countries, it remains rare for Russian servicewomen to go to war. Ukraine, for example,
has seen several female soldiers join the fighting.
A eulogy at the woman’s
funeral said: ‘A female warrior has always been an exception to the
rule. But Anastasia, having mastered the ‘home’ front, went without fear
to a dangerous special operation, accomplishing a double feat.’
Sturkov said: ‘I express my
condolences on the loss of the glorious daughter of Russia. Fighting and
female servicemen seem incompatible, but fate has decreed so.
‘We are both grieving and
proud.’
Her commander Major Sergey
Minochkin said: ‘She went to collect humanitarian aid and then went to Ukraine
herself. The command of the unit expresses its deepest condolences to her
relatives. For us, she will always be a real hero.’
