Families whose sons were listed as missing after the Russian flagship in the Black Sea sank a week ago are demanding answers in increasing numbers as the Ministry of Defense and top government officials stay silent about the fate of the crew.
At least 10 families have come forward publicly — on social media or to news organizations — to voice their frustration that they have been told by different officers or others that their sons were either alive, missing or dead. Yet, there still has been no official update to the initial announcement that the more than 500 crew members on the cruiser, the Moskva, were all rescued.
"They don’t want to talk to us,” Maksim Savin, 32, said in an interview about his search for his youngest brother, Leonid, 20, a conscript who served on the Moskva. "We are grieving. They drafted our little brother and most likely will never give him back.”